Ismaïla Sarr who turned 22, 5-days before his onslaught against Liverpool joined the Premier League from the French Ligue Un to follow in the path of his Senegal ‘big brother’- Sadio Mane.
A 19-year-old Sarr rejected a move to Spanish giant Barcelona.
Ismaila Sarr’s grew up in Saint Louis, his father, former Senegalese International, Abdoulaye Sarr Naar Gaad held on that the young Sarr must not compromise their education for football but Sarr detested school and wasn’t pleased with his parent’s decision to send him to school.
After receiving several bad reports from his school teachers, Sarri’s parents stopped him from attending school and forcibly took him to a master tailor in his neighborhood so he could learn tailoring.
Ismaila Sarr was humble enough to learn the basics of tailoring, However, his passion for football couldn’t allow him to finish is apprenticeship, as he abandoned tailoring and went ahead to pursue his football dream without his parent’s approval.
In 2009, He had a successful trial with AS Génération Foot and enrolled for football classes.
He helped the club progress from the second tier to the top flight of the Senegalese League and had a 7-yearvspell with the Senegalese team until 2016, When he finally got his big break, signing his first professional contract with Metz.
Sarr’s progress with FC Metz earned him a callup to the Senegalese national team which was a dream come true.
Not long after, FC Barcelona also came calling as they wanted his signature, but the promising footballer rejected Barcelona claiming it was too early for his career rather joined Stade Rennes to where he continued his great goal scoring form.
The feat saw him getting named in the Senegalese squad of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Sarr goals helped Rennes clinched their place in the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League knockout phase and eventually win the UEFA Europa League Goal of the Season.
On 8 August 2019, Sarr joined Premier League club, Watford, in a club-record transfer fee.