Mahamadou Diarra admits he has been 'welcomed by the club' after signing for Fulham for the rest of the season.
Anchor-man happy to be at Craven Cottage
Mahamadou Diarra admits he has been 'welcomed by the club' after signing for Fulham for the rest of the season.
The tough-tackling anchor-man has been without a club since leaving Monaco last summer but Cottagers boss Martin Jol believes he has the quality to succeed in the Premier League.
And the 30-year-old former Real Madrid midfielder is confident of doing enough in the remaining games to persuade the Dutchman he is worth a long-term deal.
"It has been a great pleasure to be here with the team for about a week now," Diarra said.
"I loved my first week of training here. It went really well and everyone was smiling and welcomed me with open arms.
"I really felt welcomed at my new club. There is a feeling that people are happy for me to be here and I am certainly happy to have signed for Fulham.
Ambitious
"Fulham is open to players who like to play football, who give their best and who have a winning mentality," he explained.
"The club is ambitious and that was made clear to me by the hierarchy here." Diarra, who has been capped 64 times by Mali, admitted the opportunity to move to Fulham made him want to sign straight away.
"I consider the 12 remaining matches as 12 finals for me," Diarra added.
"It's up to me now to prove that I can do well and satisfy the team with good performances on the pitch. I have seen the team play and I am aware of how the players play and I find myself amongst a good and talented group.
"For me, this is going to be a big challenge and an enormous adventure."
