Scout Report: Ibrahim Sangare - Ligue 1’s next midfield colossus

It’s fair to say that France’s top tier produces a number of top young stars in the making, some of whom go onto greatness while others fall short of expectations.

It’s always a playground packed with midfield talent, and that was certainly the case at Toulouse around the turn of the decade, with Etienne Capoue and Moussa Sissoko both graduating from the club’s academy. Both emerged with reputations as big as their statures and would go on to be capped for the French national team but, in truth, both fall into the category of having failed to live up to their promise.

Now there’s a new midfield colossus on the block at TFC, and Ibrahim Sangare will be hoping to emulate the initial success of his predecessors, but better build upon his lofty potential.

Having made his debut as an 18-year-old back in 2016, the Ivorian only really established himself as a first team regular midway through last season, going on to start 18 times in Ligue 1. He's continued that under Alain Casanova this season. His ball-winning ability was clear to see, averaging the most tackles per 90 minutes of players to start ten or more games (4.1) - a feat previously achieved by the likes of Mario Lemina, Idrissa Gueye and, of course, N’Golo Kante.

After four matches of the current season he’s already improved on that figure, currently averaging 4.5 per 90 minutes, with no player having made more tackles in total ahead of the international break (18). The efficiency of his challenges have seen a huge improvement to now too, dribbled past just once, resulting in an outstanding 94.7 per cent tackle success - up from 64.3 per cent last season.

It’s the progress in other aspects of his game that offers the most encouragement that Sangare could become the modern all round midfielder that is so in demand nowadays, with significant developments in his dribbling and passing thus far.

Only Allan Saint-Maximin (15) and Ferland Mendy (14) have completed more dribbles in Ligue 1 than the youngster at this early stage (13), and while he proved last season that he was able to use his power to breeze past opponents, again his efficiency is on the rise. Last season the midfielder completed 29 of 36 attempts - an impressive 80.6 per cent success - and this time around he’s been dispossessed on just three of 16 attempts - 81.3 per cent.

He’s the only player in Europe’s top five leagues this season to have reached double figures for both tackles and dribbles, highlighting how important he has been in and out of possession for a Toulouse side that have now won three on the spin.

If there was one question mark as to the youngster’s ability to make the next step in his career, it revolved around his ability to retain possession. A pass accuracy of just 74.5 per cent last season was below par for a player of his position to say the least so, while it is of course early days, a huge leap to an impressive 87.6 per cent thus far this time around suggests that Sangare is acclimatising to first team football.

At just 20 one could forgive Le TefeCe’s latest midfield powerhouse for lacking a little composure but if he can maintain his early season form he may well be the next Toulouse star to make a move to bigger and better things before long.

Having scored his first goal of the season in the most recent victory over Guingamp, registering an assist earlier in the campaign at Bordeaux, Sangare has the tools and the physical attributes to go to the very top. With a WhoScored.com rating of 7.60 he’s the third highest rated player aged 21 or under in Europe’s top five leagues to have made more than two appearances, behind Kylian Mbappe (8.14) and Ousmane Dembele (7.89) and the Toulouse star is certainly one to watch following the international break.