Pape Matar Sarr: “This Club has become like a family to me”
Wed 03 January 2024, 10:20|
Tottenham Hotspur
Pape Matar Sarr feels like his hard work is paying off after putting pen to paper on a new long-term contract with the Club.
The Senegal international midfielder has starred for us this term in what is only his second season in English football, establishing himself as a key member of Ange Postecoglou’s all-action system.
Rewarded with a new contract, which will run until 2030, the quietly-spoken yet determined young man says he’s loving life in north London and is firing on all cylinders.
“It’s a great feeling, being part of things here at Tottenham, which has become like a family to me now, so it makes me happy to have renewed my contract with the Club with a view to staying here for as long as possible so I can really express myself on the pitch, enjoy the experience to the full with the fans and push on to win trophies,” he said.
“I try to enjoy each match as it comes. I wanted to make this a great season for us all, and a good one for me. In my view it’s been a lot of hard work which is now beginning to pay dividends a little. I’ve been reaping the rewards of all that hard work this season, starting matches, scoring goals and now signing my new contract, so yes, I’m very happy. I try to enjoy my football, to help the team the best I can and to draw benefit from every match that I play.”
Signed initially from Metz in 2021, the 21-year-old spent another year with the French side on loan before joining up with us full-time in the summer of 2022. After getting acclimatised to English football in 2022/23, he’s well and truly hit his stride this term and has featured in the engine room in 18 of our 20 Premier League matches so far, starting 16.
“We work together as a unit in the midfield and whoever is selected to play, we all try to complement each other because the team relies on us a lot,” he said. “My role is practically to play as a number eight, so I try to mount attacks and do my defensive duties too, as the coach wants me to. I try to score goals too, all to help the team where I can.”
Pape bagged his first goal for us in our memorable 2-0 home victory over Manchester United in August, before netting the opener in our 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth just two days ago.
“I play a bit further forward and I know I could have scored other goals before the last one I scored this week because I’d missed one or two chances in games, but that’s how it goes,” he said. “The Premier League season is a long one and I’m sure I’ll go on to score more. I felt it was liberating to score at home – I love to score at our stadium as the fans are always 100 per cent behind us, so yes, I love scoring here and sharing those moments with them.”
Unfortunately, Pape’s afternoon ended early against Bournemouth at the weekend as he was forced off in the first half, but he’s still set to report for duty with Senegal this week with a view to featuring at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) over the next month. Part of the Senegal squad that lifted the trophy in 2022, Pape will become the first Spurs player ever to appear at two different AFCON tournaments if he takes to the field during this year’s competition.
“It’s never easy to defend a title having won the tournament last time around, but we’ll be trying to go as far as we possibly can in the competition as it’s a major tournament for us and it’s also big for me personally,” he said. “We’ll be going into it to try and defend our title, to create something special and hopefully take home that trophy. Away from that, I promise I’ll be back soon to continue with our great season.”
