Fodé Mansaré

Sorry about the delay in between blog posts, but I’m back and hopefully will be posting again regularly. I’ll try and finish with the player profiles by the end of the week.

Next up to profile is winger Fodé Mansaré. He has represented Guinea at the last three African Cup of Nations. He was also a key member of the squad that tried to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. He is one of the Syli Nationale’s most dynamic players and will play a vital role in their attempt to qualify for South Africa 2010. He has already started every match of the qualifying campaign so far and is certain to feature in the two upcoming qualifiers that will determine whether Guinea move on to the final stage of qualifying.

Mansaré can slot into a number of positions on the field for Guinea. He typically plays out on the right wing but can also play on the left and as a striker as well. He rarely features as an out and out striker though because that is a position that Guinea have a lot of depth at. He is at home on the right wing where he can use his pace to burn defenders down the wing and his outstanding ball control to skin defenders and send crosses in to Guinea’s accomplished strikers.

At club level Mansaré plays for Toulouse FC in France’s Ligue 1. Two years ago he helped Toulouse finish third in the league and attempt to qualify for Champions League football but they drew Liverpool in the final qualifying round and that was all she wrote. Toulouse also bombed out of the Uefa Cup and had a dismal season overall. The club only avoided relegation on the last weekend of the season. Mansaré will play a big role in Toulouse’s attempt to avoid relegation again this season as the club lost two of their top attacking players in Cameroon’s Achille Emana and Sweden’s Yohan Elmander in the off season. Thus the impetus will be on Mansaré to pick up some of the goal scoring duties after a relatively barren season a year ago in which he only managed a solitary goal.

Mansaré is a player with a ton of talent but is very inconsistent. A lot should be expected of a player with Mansaré’s skill set but so far he has not really delivered. He is just 27 so there is still time for further development and he will presumably be playing for the national team for years to come and Guinea fans hope those will be the most fruitful years yet for the Syli Nationale.