In recent weeks he has been more often applauded than reviled: Ibrahim Sangaré. The PSV midfielder is also emerging as a goalscorer. Ivory Coast won 0-3 against Malawi on Friday, partly due to a goal from Sangaré. The 23-year-old PSV player has thus scored three times in his last three official games. By comparison, in his entire career, Sangaré had scored just four times, for clubs and country combined, until nine days ago. Jean Musampa, who is affiliated with JBM Sports Management as an agent, has never doubted Sangaré.
Musampa, himself a former footballer of Go Ahead Eagles and also the brother of also former footballer Kiki Musampa, discovered Sangaré when he played for AS Denguélé in his homeland at the age of sixteen. Musampa took care of it, supported Sangaré financially and visited him in Abidjan two or three times a year. “He turned out to be born on December 2, the same day as my son. I immediately said: ‘you are my football son’.”
Sangaré signed a contract with Toulouse, where he soon found himself in the spotlight at other clubs. “I got an invitation from Arsenal. There they had three hundred pages with analyzes and data from his game,” the representative says in conversation with The Telegraph. “Thomas Partey, however, was the first choice.” Sangaré could ultimately choose between Southampton and PSV. “I thought he would choose the Premier League. But he also liked PSV,” says Musampa. “He asked: ‘Dad, what should I choose?’.”
“He wanted to play football and not go to the Premier League at all costs. PSV always plays at the top and plays in the Champions League or Europa League. He can always make the next step.” Musampa is getting more and more signals from clubs that follow Sangaré. The agent thinks he has what it takes to succeed in the Premier League. “Let him finish the season first,” he emphasizes.
Some analysts see Sangaré as a brake in the attack build-up, because he would lose so many balls. The Telegraph investigated whether, for example, Edson Álvarez suffers much less loss of ball in the Eredivisie at Ajax than the Ivorian. Last season, Álvarez yielded an average of 11 balls per game, against Sangaré an average of 13.6. However, the Ivorian came on average 89.4 times, compared to Álvarez 76.5 times. This season Sangaré is even more often on the ball – 95.8 times – and suffers less loss of the ball: 13.0 times. Álvarez also gains possession more often – 83.8 times, but also loses the ball more often: 12.3.