Mamadou Dieng is a 20-year-old Senegalese striker who plays for Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship. Dieng previously played for Sahel Academy in Senegal, a club with very limited information about it available online (it doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page). Dieng has never played for Senegal at any level. But despite this unassuming resume, Dieng has absolutely exploded in the second half of the USL season. He has scored 10 goals in a little over 1600 minutes but almost all of those goals have been in the last 15 games.
Dieng is a pure goal-scorer. His greatest skill is his off-the-ball movement. Dieng seems to get on the end of chances in the six-yard box every game he plays. He’s incredibly slippery which leads to a constant stream of chances from high-danger areas. He’s also 6’2 and pretty fast for a player his size. In the opposition box, he’s basically a god, at least against USL-level defenders. His speed also makes him a threat for balls in behind. In USL, which is a league with a lot of direct play, Dieng is often able to beat defenders to loose balls and accelerate past them. However, he could use his frame a lot more effectively. Dieng is relatively slight and can be pushed off the ball relatively easily despite his size. He is, however, good in the air. In addition to his height, he is a strong jumper.
The downside for Dieng is everything outside the opposition box. He’s not a good dribbler and sometimes his inability to move efficiently with the ball at his feet causes him to squander situations he gets into with his speed. His passing is also not very good. If he finds himself in wide areas his crosses mostly balloon over everyone. When linking play he rarely does anything more than retain possession. He’s a very eager presser and sometimes his speed takes defenders off guard. But he does a lot of ineffective running that leads to him getting easily passed around. Still, in a more structured system, he has traits that could lead him to being an effective part of the press.
Dieng’s limited technical ability will prevent him from reaching the pinnacle of world football. But he’s a tactically smart (in attack at least), big, athletic striker and the ceiling for those guys is pretty high by default. Plus, I doubt the facilities at this mysterious club in Senegal were that good. I wouldn’t discount the fact that he probably hasn’t been training in a proper professional environment for that long. He likely has a lot of room to grow. His international status may scare some MLS teams away but I’m confident he could play at that level now and potentially go a little further.
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