Premier League clubs’ spending spree shows no sign of abating. Last summer, English teams collectively splashed over four billion euros, and more than half broke their own transfer records. Brentford was no exception, signing Mamadou Sangaré (24). Yet that very deal could prove a real coup. Voetbalzone tells his story.
By: Lars Capiau
Last summer’s window proved once again that no other league can match the Premier League’s financial firepower. During the most recent window, English clubs collectively splashed out – brace yourselves – over four billion euros.
On Deadline Day alone, clubs splashed over half a billion pounds, with Enzo Fernández’s move to Manchester City (€145m) equalling the most expensive English transfer of all time.
More than half of the clubs broke their own transfer records, and deals worth 100 million euros or more could not be counted on one hand.
So how do you compete in this spending frenzy? Do you simply have to splash out hundreds of millions as well? That alone is often not enough, as demonstrated by every yo-yo team that has shuttled between the Premier League and the Championship in recent years.
A sound policy is usually what keeps a non-elite club stable in England’s top flight. Brighton & Hove Albion were promoted to the Premier League in 2017 after a 34-year absence and have since become an integral part of the league.
Much has been written about the management style of Tony Bloom, a mathematician, professional poker player and owner of Brighton, Union Saint-Gilles and Hearts. But at Brentford, there is a close associate of Bloom’s: Matthew Benham.
Like Bloom, Benham—a former investment banker—made his name and fortune in gambling; he founded Smartodds, a firm that supplies data and advice to punters.
Incidentally, that is also why Bloom and Benham have not spoken to each other for more than two decades; as The Athletic once reported, a “cold war” has been raging between the two for years.
Benham once worked under Bloom at the betting firm Premier Bet until he launched Smartodds in 2004, a move Bloom saw as betrayal because Benham used a similar business model.
That’s all by the by. The fact is, their statistical models—backed by a database of up to 100,000 players—work just as well in football as they do in betting.
Matthew Benham, left, owner of Brentford, alongside former Brentford manager Thomas Frank
The Moneyball-style approach has delivered both financial and sporting gains. Up front, Neal Maupay made way for Ollie Watkins, who was succeeded by Ivan Toney, Yoane Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and Igor Thiago.
The approach has earned the club hundreds of millions. Yet, before the last transfer window, Brentford had splashed more than 35 million euros on a single player only once. This summer, however, the Bees broke their own transfer record. Mamadou Sangaré, 24, cost just under fifty million euros. But who is he?
That is a question Brentford supporters have no doubt asked themselves at some point. Yet Sangaré needed only ninety minutes to win over the fans’ hearts.
During his masterful performance against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League opener, in which he recorded the first assist of the new season, the sharpest minds among Brentford’s supporters got together.
The fans wanted to serenade him straight away. As Sangaré completed his lap of honour after the match, Whitney Houston’s voice boomed through the speakers: “Oh, I wanna dance with Sangaré.” Quite catchy.
Even the press were already raving about him after just one match. “The most impressive debutant was undoubtedly Brentford midfielder Sangaré,” according to The Athletic. “He looked good because he is good.”
“This was supposed to be the day Sandro Tonali would prove why Tottenham broke the transfer record by paying £100 million for him. He was completely overshadowed by Sangaré, who cost half the price.”
“He possesses the technical qualities and physical attributes of a Premier League player and is an excellent all-round midfielder. It seems Brentford have found yet another hidden gem,” the respected publication concluded.
Sangaré, 24, established himself on the European stage last term. A mainstay of RC Lens’s second-placed Ligue 1 campaign, he was one of the few non-PSG players selected in the division’s Team of the Year.
La Gauche Magique, ‘the magical left-footer’, is the nickname he earned as a youth. A native of Bamako, the Malian capital, Sangaré joined Yeelen Olympique, one of the country’s most prestigious academies, at a young age.
“He was always the best in his class,” recalls Mohamed Lamine Fofana, better known as ‘Lams’, in an interview with RFI magazine. Lams led Yeelen Olympique for eleven years.
“At five in the morning, three hours before class, he’d get up to train alone. He wanted it more than the others,” says Lams.
“Elegant”, “creative”, yet “not someone who wanted to get his trousers dirty”—so the magazine sums up Sangaré.
“He was a true number 10, but he didn’t like winning the ball back in defence,” says Lams. Now, however, Sangaré is widely regarded as one of Europe’s best ball-winners.
Mamadou Sangaré wins the ball back yet again for RC Lens
Last season, no one in Ligue 1 made more successful tackles or won the ball back more often in the middle third than Sangaré. He also ranked third with 159 ground duels won and showed a keen eye for shooting from distance, with only two players in the French top flight attempting more efforts from outside the box.
“He started out as a number 10 in a slightly more attacking role,” recalls his compatriot Amadou Haïdara, who partnered Sangaré at RC Lens and for Mali. “Now he’s a box-to-box midfielder who can even slot in as a defensive midfielder. Technically, he’s very strong, and now he’s scoring goals as well. To me, he’s a complete midfielder.”
Nevertheless, Sangaré is something of a late bloomer. As a teenager he was regarded as one of Mali’s greatest talents, which is why Red Bull Salzburg signed him on a five-year deal. However, in Austria they did not consider him ready for first-team action.
“It wasn’t easy when I signed my first contract in Salzburg,” Sangaré later reflected. “I had to get used to the language, the culture and the way the game is played in Europe.”
As a result, he was loaned out four times: first to sister club FC Liefering, then to Belgian side Zulte Waregem, and finally to two other Austrian teams, Graz AK and TSV Hartberg.
It was at Hartberg that he caught the eye of Rapid Wien. The capital club were impressed by the midfielder, who was also fluent in German.
In Vienna, they promised not to block a move if a bigger club came calling. During that season with Rapid—Sangaré was 22—he finally broke through. “He is technically very strong,” Rapid’s technical director Markus Katzer told The Athletic.
Mamadou Sangaré is also a crowd favourite at Rapid Vienna
“He dribbles and always finds solutions in the tiniest of spaces. The way he wins the ball back is his greatest strength. He’s a mix between a ‘six’ and an ‘eight’, and he was constantly working on his development. He was obsessed with getting better.”
“A modest lad, too,” Katzer added. “He always turned up for training in Crocs and on an electric scooter.” That standout season in Vienna attracted attention in France, where RC Lens paid €8m to bring Sangaré to Ligue 1.
At Lens he hit the ground running, forming a midfield anchor that pushed Paris Saint-Germain all the way in the title race and helped the club lift the French Cup.
Success has its price: the best players inevitably move on. Sangaré was no exception. He chose Brentford despite interest from bigger clubs. “I spoke to him just a few months ago,” recalls Tom Saintfiet, the Belgian coach who also led the Mali national team, in an interview with Sky Sports.
“Even back then, a few names from other Premier League clubs – the real powerhouses – were being mentioned. He’s confident on the ball and clever with his passing. Of course, he’s incredibly strong at winning the ball back, but he has so many other qualities that are important in modern football.”
“Put him in FC Barcelona’s team and he’ll be a key player there too, with his style of play. But Brentford is a good move. They’ve often shown they have an eye for players who aren’t that well known in the rest of England. But Brentford isn’t his final destination, I reckon. He’s going to make it to the top in England.”
At Brentford, people have already grown quite attached to Sangaré. “Enthusiasm is running high within the club,” writes The I Paper. “They have the same team as last year. But they’ve replaced Jordan Henderson with N’Golo Kanté.”
In an era when Enzo Fernández, Morgan Rogers, Elliott Anderson, Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Ayyoub Bouaddi have all moved for fees exceeding €100m, €50m for Sangaré looks like a bargain.
