There’s so much young talent coming out of Ligue 1 these days, and Metz midfielder Pape Matar Sarr is generating more hype than most.
The 18-year-old has recently been linked with an expensive move to either Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United, although a new report indicates that a transfer to Tottenham is now nearing completion.
Sarr’s stock will only rise from this point, so it’s time to get to know him a little better.
To say that Sarr is practical in a number of positions would be a huge understatement.
The teenager spent time as a central midfielder earlier in his career and has even played as an attacking midfielder, but seems to be slowly honing his craft as a defensive-minded player.
“I’m developing as a midfielder,” Sarr told Metz’s official website. “In Senegal I played as 8th, but here I am used as 6. I thrive in both positions.”
If you want an idea of the confusion surrounding Sarr’s best position, the fact that he has been compared to both Liverpool winger Sadio Mane and former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien should sum up the confusion perfectly.
His father told L’Equipe that he sees Sarr as a “real number 10”, but Sarr’s best performances have come as a defensive midfielder.
Comparisons with the Essien box-to-box style seem meaningful, but those links to Mane prove that those close to Sarr feel he can do much more.
While Sarr’s father may want him in a more advanced role, the consensus is that the future of youth is deeper in midfield, where Metz director Olivier Perrin compares him to Miralem Pjanic.
“I knew right away that Sarr would be a top player, with a very high level of reading and analyzing the game,” Perrin told Senego. “He’s like Miralem Pjanic.”
To increase the confusion about his best position, Perrin then went on to say: “He can play in a system of two tens, he can be central or box-to-box. He can be a 10, a 6. .. it depends on the coach. “
Sarr has shown almost N’Golo Kante levels of determination to force opponents to give up the ball, and once he gets control of it, Sarr is always looking for a long ball.
Whether it’s dipping over the midfielders to trigger a counterattack or simply changing games to relieve some pressure, Sarr is completely happy that spraying passes when he gets the chance.
This is where the connections to Pjanic make sense. It’s a quarterback-style way of playing football that is slowly starting to come back into fashion.
While Sarr may only be appearing on the global radar now, he has actually been followed by scouts for several years now, with a former agent claiming that Manchester City even offered around £ 80,000 to try to sign him when he was nine. years old.
“When he was nine, a Belgian scout saw him juggling the ball and wanted to secure his services,” Mamadou Saer Barry told wiwsport. “He wanted to take him to Manchester City and put the tidy sum of 60 million CFA francs (about 80,000 pounds) on the table.”
Sarr chose to stay in Senegal until 2020 and honed his craft at the famous Generation Foot Academy.
After making rapid progress in youth football, Sarr made his international debut for Senegal in March 2021, after which PSG midfielder Idrissa Gueye did not hold back in her praise of the kid.
“Pape Matar is a talented youth who comes from local football,” he said. “He is my type of player, I admire him a lot. He has a lot of talent and he is the future of Senegal.”
Sarr and Gueye lined up next to each other at the base of Senegal’s midfield and kept two clean sheets in their first two matches together.
In Senegal, Sarr got the nickname ‘Carlos’, a reference to the free kicks that became known by the Brazilian superstar Roberto Carlos.
That predilection for a world champion was shown during the 2019 World Cup for 17 years, where Sarr thundered home a glorious effort from the interval to push Senegal to a fantastic 4-1 victory over the United States.
The following year, at the Arab Cup, Sarr buried another stun against Egypt to inspire a comeback victory in the semifinals.
The general feeling around Sarr is that he has all the tools needed to become a future superstar, but only if he continues to work to eradicate the shortcomings of his game.
“Leave Sarr alone and let him grow,” boss Frederic Antonetti told a news conference. “He still needs to improve in all areas – technology, tactics and consistency.
“Everyone knows he has great talent, but like any 18-year-old, he still has room for improvement. He must not be disturbed.”
