He is one of the youngest members of the squad, and yet, he is part of the furniture. The walls. Thrown into L1 from the very first game of the 2016-17 season, against Lille, Malang Sarr played his 60th top flight game. Coming through the ranks at the club, passing through every age group, the defender is growing in every game, as was demonstrated by his most recent monstrous performance. And as is demonstrated by the stats.

“When you work, of course you progress - this is his case. I really liked his performance in the last game. I am happy with what he is producing on the pitch and his attitude.” Patrick Vieira didn’t mix his words during the pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Guingamp. The Gym’s coach spoke of the France U20s captain’s rise to the first team, even admitting that “his performances” had “forced him to change the system (moving from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2), because I always want to put the best players on the pitch to win.” 

After a summer spent at Euro U19, where he reached the semi-finals, the left-footed defender came back to his club, waited, worked, and then finally made his return to the starting 11 to face Lyon (1-0 victory during Week 4) and made it with a bang.  This season, he is the most used U20 player in L1 (12 matches) alongside the Marseillais Boubacar Kamara, another star of the 99 Generation. If you widen the study, he takes his place on the podium of French players under 20 years old who have made the most appearances in L1 (60), just behind Kylian Mbappé (77) and Alban Lafont (98 appearances); and in the European Top 5 most capped young players in the league, where he appears with Gianluigi Donnarumma (119 matches), Alban Lafont (109, L1 and Serie A), Kylian Mbappé (77) and Kai Havertz (66).

Finally, to come back to a more local focus, he is the youngest Aiglon to reach 60 matches in Ligue 1 since the promotion, ahead of Allan Saint-Maximin and Hugo Lloris (see the table below). 

C.D. - Stats Opta

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