Mamadou Hamidou Niang (born 13 October 1979) is a Senegalese former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. He has represented

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

at international level, participating in the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, and

2008 African Cup of Nations The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated with the Confeder ...

. He is the older brother of Papa Niang, who is also a professional footballer.

Club career

Troyes

After beginning his career with the

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

youth team, Niang turned professional at 18 years of age with

Troyes Troyes () is a Communes of France, commune and the capital of the Departments of France, department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within ...

. He had a mixed beginning to his career with his first season featuring ten

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

starts, all from the bench, the following season would show little improvement with 17 starts and only 3 league goals.

Loan to Metz

A loan period with

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

club

FC Metz Football Club de Metz () is a Football in France, French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 1, the highest division in the French football league system, for the 2025–26 Ligue 1, ...

allowed him to hone his skills, contributing 5 goals in 12 appearances and helping Metz return to top flight French football for the 2003–04 season.

Strasbourg

Jean Fernandez, the Metz manager, tried to make the loan deal into a permanent move but failed and Niang left Troyes for

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. The arrival of Danijel Ljuboja, to Strasbourg at the same time allowed Niang to form an important strike partnership until Ljuboja moved to

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

. Niang didn't score again for the remainder of the second half of that season. The 2004–05 season saw Mickaël Pagis arrive at Strasbourg, and a fruitful new partnership was formed, with the pair linking up for 27 goals in the league. This partnership helped Strasbourg make it to the

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a knockout cup competition in French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was established in 1993 and, unlike the Coupe de France ...

final, where victory over

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

gave Strasbourg their second Coupe de la Ligue trophy. Niang scored Strasbourg's first goal as they won 2–1.

Marseille

In 2005, Niang moved to

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

for a reported fee of €7 million. He was joined six months later by Mickaël Pagis. Niang finished the season as Marseille's top scorer with ten goals but Marseille lost the

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

final to

. Niang was selected Marseille player of the month by the fans for May 2008. Niang would go on to finish the 2009–10 season with 18 goals in Ligue 1, making him the highest scorer in the league and Marseille's highest scorer with 28 goals in all competitions.

Fenerbahçe

Niang signed a 3+1 year deal with Fenerbahçe on 14 August 2010 for a fee of reported €8 million. He made a great start with Fenerbahçe when he scored seven goals in his first six league appearances. Niang scored his first hat-trick for Fenerbahçe on his 5th appearance when they won 6–2 against Kasımpaşa. He helped his side win the

2010–11 Süper Lig The 2010–11 Süper Lig (known as the ''Spor Toto Süper Lig'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 53rd season since its establishment. The season began on 14 August 2010 and concluded on 22 May 2011. Fenerbahçe claimed their 18th title, but th ...

, scoring 16 goals in 29 appearances.

Al Sadd

On 6 September 2011, Niang was sold to Al-Sadd for €7.5 million. On 19 October 2011, at the

2011 AFC Champions League The 2011 AFC Champions League was the 30th edition of the top-level Asian club association football, football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 9th under the current AFC Champions League title. The winners, ...

semi-final match against

Suwon Samsung Bluewings The Suwon Samsung Bluewings () are a South Korean Association football, football club based in Suwon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in December 1995, they have won the K League on four occas ...

, he scored the controversial, un-sportsmanlike second goal for his team. Al Sadd should've sent the ball back to the Bluewings since the play was suspended when the home team's player was injured. However, while Suwon's defense stood still thinking their goalkeeper will get the ball back, Niang stole the ball and went past the goalkeeper to score. The goal induced an intrusion of a home fan and a huge melee of both players and bench. The controversy got bigger when Al Sadd's player Keita took a swing at a home fan. Even though his goal was against general notion of fair-play, Niang argued that there was no problem with his goal, and that it was Suwon who played without manners, inducing melee between two teams. After all, AFC did not conclude this issue justly, by giving disciplinary actions to Suwon only, Al Sadd getting absolutely nothing, not even Niang or Keita. He then got himself sent-off in injury time for kicking the ball away when he was flagged offside, receiving another yellow card in addition to his previous, meaning he could not participate in the second leg in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Beşiktaş (loan)

On 31 January 2013, Niang moved to Turkish side Beşiktaş on loan until the end of the season. On 3 March 2013, he scored his first goal and contributed with an assist in a 3–2 win against his old club Fenerbahçe securing 3 points for his team in the final derby ever on

İnönü Stadium İnönü may refer to. İnönü family * İsmet İnönü (1884–1973), President of Turkey from 1938 to 1950 * Mevhibe İnönü (1897–1992), First Lady of Turkey from 1938 to 1950 * Erdal İnönü (1926–2007), physicist and politician Plac ...

Arles-Avignon

On 28 August 2014, Niang returned to France to sign for Arles-Avignon, having been overseas for the last four years.

International career

Niang represented the national team at the

2006 Africa Cup of Nations The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt, from 20 January to 10 February. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split int ...

, where his team took fourth place for the third time in history.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Senegal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Niang goal''.

Honours

Troyes *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Strasbourg *

: 2004–05 Marseille *

: 2009–10 *

Trophée des Champions The Trophée des Champions (, ) is a French association football trophy contested in an annual match between the champions of Ligue 1 and the winners of the Coupe de France. It is equivalent to the Super cup, super cups found in many other count ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

* UEFA Intertoto Cup:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Fenerbahçe *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Al Sadd *

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League Elite (abbreviated as the ACL Elite) is an annual continental club association football, football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's List of top-division football clubs i ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Senegal *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

fourth place:

Individual * UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month: May 2005, December 2005, December 2007 * UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2007–08, 2009–10 * UNFP Ligue 1 Goal of the Year: 2009–10 * Ligue 1 top scorer: 2009–10 * Marseille Player of the Season: 2009–10

References

External links

* *
Mamadou Niang Fenerbahçe Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Niang, Mamadou 1979 births Living people Naturalized citizens of France French men's footballers French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Senegalese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Senegal men's international footballers 2004 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players 2012 Africa Cup of Nations players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 2 players Süper Lig players Qatar Stars League players Olympique de Marseille players RC Strasbourg Alsace players FC Metz players ES Troyes AC players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Beşiktaş J.K. footballers AC Arlésien players Senegalese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Senegalese expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar AFC Champions League Elite–winning players