Malang Sarr’s chance to impress now at AS Monaco

Malang Sarr’s season on loan at AS Monaco hasn’t been overly impressive, with the 24-year-old defender collecting just around 700 minutes across 13 appearances (7 starts) thus far, but he has a chance to turn things around as we head into the spring.

Having spent much of the season as fourth-choice in the center back pecking order, he’s set for a run in the team thanks to Benoît Badiashile joining Chelsea in January and Guillermo Maripán picking up an injury last week. Sarr has also been working hard and doing well in training, inspiring some confidence from his manager, Philippe Clement.

“For Malang, it is a good opportunity and he has shown good things in recent weeks.

“We have been training for months with Malang. It’s not that because you see him little in matches that he’s doing nothing here. There is competition here and I am very happy about that, but [at the start] it was difficult for him to get into the team with Maripán, [Axel] Disasi and Badiashile competing for two spots. Without Benoît, there is less competition, and he can profit from that.”

-Philippe Clement; source: GFFN

Monaco have a conditional €10-12m purchase obligation in the loan agreement, which reportedly depends on the number of appearances Sarr makes for them this season. So if he does well and keeps his spot, perhaps he will get to keep his spot for good. He has two more years left at Chelsea otherwise.

Good luck, Malanginho!