Ibrahim Sangaré is an Ivorian professional footballer and a midfielder who plays for Ligue 1 club Toulouse.
He started his youth career with Ivorian clubs AS Duenguele and Tout Puissant Koumassi. Sangaré joined Toulouse youth rank upon his arrival at the French club. He debuted for Toulouse in a 0–0 tie with Angers SCO on 22 October 2016.
Upon the 18-year-old arrival at Toulouse four years ago, Ibrahim Sangaré quickly earned comparison with an ex-Ivorian international Yaya Touré due to their nearly similar style of play and physical attributes. Their similarities became more obvious and was consistently displayed; boasting same combination of size and skill-set.
Standing at 6ft 3in, Sangaré makes full advantage of his physical attributes conjoined with his athleticism. His physique makes him extremely difficult to dribble past. As it was evident during 2018/2019 season where he was dribbled past averagely once per game.
In 2017/2018 season, Sangaré made huge contributions in the team, as he was the focal point for most of their great performances which helped them to avoid relegation in his first full season with the first-team. That season, Sangaré contributed 3.6 tackles per game (which was the fourth highest in the league), completing an astonishing 81% of his dribbles (which was the 3rd highest successful dribble percentage in the league, only behind Youssef Ait Bennasser with the highest rate of 86% successful dribbles and PSG’s Marco Verratti in second position, amassing 82% successful dribbles).
When been pressed by opponents, he’s very difficult to dispossess as Sangaré is very good with the ball at his feet which helps in maneuvering his way out of tight corners, especially in one-on-one situations against opposition players. His cleverness, close control and quick speed makes him a serious ball carrier.
Ibrahim likes to play line breaking passes and has a good range of long balls to create goal scoring opportunities for his teammates. He is usually tasked with the duty of covering the space in-behind his fullbacks. He provides a lot of energy and mobility in the midfield, as you’d see Sangaré constantly covering almost every part of the field, covering available spaces off-the-ball and making progressive move while with the ball.
He’s highly composed and intelligent enough to dictate the tempo of the game from deep position with his good, quick decision making ability, moving the ball quickly with few touches and providing layoffs to buildup quick attack. But can also calmly take his time if needed to retain possession while scanning for better opportunities before making a decision.
Sangaré likes to be deployed as a deep-lying playmaker, though, he made his mark primarily as a defensive midfielder, but he has intelligently been able to impose himself and influence the opposition half as much as his own with his constant forward runs, looking for players in between the lines to pass too. He has a good vision and likes to hit long range diagonal passes to the wingers in wide positions in the opposition half to enhance an attack from both sides.
This season, Sangaré made 25 starts in France top flight and his influence, importance and productivity for the team hasn’t been short of expectations, which has continued to attract the attention of top European clubs like Arsenal, Barcelona, Everton, etc.
With Sangaré having just over a year left on his contract and Toulouse’s being relegated to the second tier due to the league’s management decision to abruptly put an end to the league cause of the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, Toulouse’s demotion will undoubtedly lead to more transfer speculation regarding the Ivorian international’s future.
And inevitably put the club in a position where they will have to cash in on their midfield maestro.
WATCH: IBRAHIM SANGARE – The Incredible Prospect
