Mali coach Henri Stambouli described Frederic Kanoute as 'fantastic' after the Tottenham striker got his name on the scoresheet for the fourth time at the African Nations Cup in Saturday's 2-1 quarter-final win over Guinea.
"He is very important to the team," said Stambouli. "He is a fantastic man and a fantastic striker and with each match he proves it even more.
"Freddie is a very important player for us and I hope he will continue with us for a very long time to come."
Kanoute struck in first-half injury-time with a cool lob to pull Mali level after Guinea had taken a 14th minute lead through Pascal Feindounou.
It was his fourth goal of the competition and took him level with Cameroon's Patrick Mboma as the tournament's top scorer.
He was also a constant threat to the Guinea defence and with a little more luck could have had a hat-trick before skipper Mahamadou Diarra stepped up to fire in the Mali winner in injury-time at the end of the match.
Kanoute, 26, whose decision to switch allegiance from France to Mali has been fully vindicated here, said he was not even thinking about winning the Golden Boot for the tournament's top scorer.
His concentration is solely on Wednesday's semi-final in Sousse against either Morocco or Algeria who play their quarter-final in Sfax on Sunday.
"I am not playing with the aim of being top-scorer," said Kanoute.
"The goals are very important now because they are in the knockout stages. I just want the team to win. I will be happy to score more goals but I will be even more content if Mali keep winning."
Kanoute said he thought Mali deserved their win which has now taken them into a second successive semi-final and a fourth in four appearances at the continental championship.
On home soil, two years ago, they were outclassed by eventual champions Cameroon and lost 3-0.
"I think we deserved to win on Saturday. Even when we went a goal behind, we kept our cool and we equalised at the end of the first half and then won it at the end of the match," said Kanoute.
"We just tried to keep playing. I was worried about the match going into extra-time because players get tired and fatigue creeps in and then anything can happen.
"I felt we were a little stretched in the match. That was due to a fear of losing. But, in the end, everything was alright."
As far as the semi-final is concerned, Mali are on their guard knowing they have beaten both Morocco and Algeria in friendlies recently.
"They will want revenge. But I don't care who we play. They are both very good teams.
"We will just have to keep working hard, concentrate and prepare well.
"We are not thinking about the final. It's bit by bit for us."