Mamadou Sangaré, despite spending four years with the club, never played a game for RB Salzburg. Instead, the Red Bull club sent him out on loan each season he was there. Three of those loans were in Austria, and the other was in the Belgian second division.
At each side, the youngster impressed. Each loan move was a step up from the last, and after yet another brilliant season away from his parent club, it was clear he needed to move to advance his career.
Fellow Austrian Bundesliga side Rapid Wien secured his services in the summer of 2024 for roughly €700,000, a deal that worked for all parties. Again, Sangaré settled in quickly and became an integral part of the midfield.
This led, in September 2024, to Sangaré being called up to his national side, Mali, for the very first time. The time-honoured tradition in football is, simply put, if you are new to a squad, you must get up and sing in front of your new teammates; it’s an icebreaker of sorts. That was the case when he joined Mali for two important AFCON qualification games against Mozambique & Eswatini.
The MC for this karaoke shindig was none other than national team captain Yves Bissouma. When he welcomed young Sangare onto the stage, he asked what position he played. Sangare replied, “Yours”.
It tells you everything you need to know about the player's confidence: no fear, no hesitation.
·The Performance
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Well, it looks like Brentford have done it again.
While it would be false to suggest that Sangaré was some unknown gem that the rest of the footballing world was unaware of, and only Matthew Benham and his team of data analysts were aware of his existence, it speaks volumes about the club's ability to improve players and provide them with a platform to display their talents that the midfielder has ended up playing for the _Bees._
The 24-year-old is coming off the back of a season with Ligue 1 side Lens, which saw him come second in the league, win the Coupe de France, be named in the division’s team of the season, and be awarded the prestigious **_Prix Marc-Vivien Foé_**_,_ an award for the best African player playing in the French league.
Prior to Brentford’s game against Tottenham Hotspur, there had been plenty of anticipation for Sangaré’s first competitive outing in the red & white stripes. Surely the Premier League would expose a young player who, when push comes to shove, does not have that much top-level experience.
It became clear very early that would not be the case, and that Brentford’s new number 18 was very much up to the task. Just 12 minutes in, he combined with Dango Ouattara for a delightful one-two, which saw him saunter into the Tottenham box, where he kept his composure and found teammate Keane Lewis-Potter all alone on the penalty spot, who side-footed it home to give Keith Andrews’ men the lead.
Even before that, he had warned Spurs of what he was capable of, with a couple of dangerous progressive passes and a handful of mazy dribbles that saw him bat away hapless defenders; in fact, he wasn’t dispossessed once in the entire game.
[Embed from Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2291573367)
Sangaré, while an elegant player on the ball, is a warrior off it. And anytime Roberto De Zerbi’s team even threatened to break, he was there to nullify the potential danger almost as quickly as it started. He was paired with Vitaly Janelt in the middle of the park, and the two looked as though they had been playing with one another for years, complementing each other nicely both in attacking and defensive phases of play.
He even had a hand in the third & final goal, as he latched onto Nathan Collins' header with a thunderous low driven effort that forced Antonín Kinský into a save that the Czech keeper could only parry into the path of Michael Kayode, who bundled the ball into the back of the net,
Value for your money is truly hard to achieve in today’s transfer market. Although Brentford have broken their transfer record to sign Sangaré, it looks as though that will prove to be the case, at least if this performance is anything to go by.
In Sangaré, the West London outfit have a player who has just about everything he needs to become a complete midfielder. He is graceful, yet ferocious, fiery, yet ice-cold on the ball. This has all the trappings of a huge season for the former Lens man, one that could shape the rest of his career.
And when the top midfielders in the Premier League ask him what position he plays, he will no doubt calmly respond, “Yours”.