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PSG’s latest Parisian wonderkid is destined to fire them to European glory

Mitchell Wilks •

Paris Saint-Germain are often associated with their flashy signings and oil-rich lifestyle, but it’s their youth academy which is quietly the beating heart of the club.

Money can buy a lot of things. Too many things in football. Top players, top flops, referees, morals, you name it.

PSG have done their best at buying just about anything and everything they can since being fully taken over by Qatar in 2012 and they’ve succeeded for the most part.

A good club went from a grand club. The beating heart of French football – if that heart ran on oil and questionable human rights – Les Parisiens were transformed not just into big spenders, but a global brand and serial winners.

Almost.

The one thing an infinite amount of money has continually failed to buy the club is European success. Cynics will argue that Qatar don’t necessarily need PSG to win a Champions League and that the sportswashing is already doing its job.

And while that might be true, it is rather embarrassing that they’ve spent an unholy amount of money, gone through several managers and styles, and literally crafted an IRL FIFA Ultimate Team front three of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe – but have still not won the Champions League.

We here at Planet Football don’t claim to have the keys to success tucked away in a lock box, but we do have our opinions. Our humble opinion is that if PSG spent more time focusing on talents like Mahamadou Sangare, they’d find themselves on a path to European dominance once again.

Paris has long been the birthing place for some of football’s biggest talents and Sangare appears to be next in line. PSG snapped him up from local side Montrouge FC as a 16-year-old back in 2023 and he’s taken to the challenge like a duck to water.

Possessing not just blistering acceleration but an exceptional work rate and intelligent positioning, Sangare quickly found himself playing under-19 football and has continued to kick on this season in the UEFA Youth League.

A previously unknown talent, back-to-back hat-tricks in the competition against Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich have quickly skyrocketed his stock and popularity – for good reason.

He’s managed seven goals from his first four games in the UEFA Youth League this season, absolutely flying out of the traps and showcasing his exciting array of skills – and crucially a lofty potential that suggests he could hold his own in PSG’s senior side.

Don’t just take our word for it, either. Consult the tapes.

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What’s most impressive about his hat-trick vs Bayern is the range of finishes on display from the teenager.

Not every goal is a blistering run from deep or a scorcher that’s been zapped into top bins. In fact, it’s his second goal of the evening that catches our eye.

A young PSG side capitalise on a Bayern error while trying to play out from the back. Instead of rushing towards the goal and hoping the ball is lashed across. Sangare gives his teammate a much better passing angle with a moment of veteran striker movement.

Holding his run back and stalking the ball in the box like an apex predator, the France under-18 international pauses intentionally to release his markers forward, giving himself the space to cooly slot home from a square ball.

It looks as simple as it sounds, but in actual fact, it takes strikers years to master such intricate movements in the box. Despite being able to rely on his other attributes, he’s already got those more complex finishes in his locker. Scary hours.

His assist on the night was also the perfect showcase of his other talents. A fantastic first touch and wicked stepovers that could send any unassuming victim to A&E with a broken ankle, he sends a defender spinning before slotting a perfectly-weighted pass the other way for an easy finish.

Sangare is scarily complete at just 17 and his progress after just a year at PSG has been nauseatingly quick. Back-to-back hat-tricks in such an important competition will no doubt skyrocket his popularity, but it’s nothing he isn’t ready for.

Les Parisiens have quietly ditched their Galactico approach under Luis Enrique and are attempting to go the more fashionable route of young stars in a more balanced side, but with Randal Kolo Muani misfiring and Bradley Barcola still learning his trade, there’s room for one more.

Barcola and Warren Zaire-Emery continue to prove that success doesn’t have to be bought; perhaps a Sangare breakthrough is the piece of the puzzle PSG didn’t know they were missing.

By Mitch Wilks

PSG