Youssouopha Sanyang completed the record transfer from Öster to Slavia Prague on tuesday, in a deal estimated around €3 million euros, making it the highest ever transfer record for Öster.
Youssoupha Sanyang’s agent, Modou Lamin Beyai, says Slavia showed commitment and his client will have continuous development in Prague.
The Gambian international, who signed a five-year contract, told the club media team that he is thrilled to join them. “Slavia is on a different level. Higher. I want to use this chance to prove my skills. I simply had to join this beautiful family at this stadium,”
His agent also pointed out that he will thrive at the club
“The Youssoupha Sanyang that I know isn’t afraid of anything when in the field; he does what he wants and delivers as expected. As a player, even if your talent is there and you are very talented, just the fact that you are playing for, for example, a team that is actually struggling, you also tend to struggle. In some cases, you can show your individual brilliance, which he did more or less before Slavia or any other team came in.” Beyai emphasized
“What I have started to do basically is to make sure that decisions that I make for players, particularly their moves and transfers, involves who are the main actors not just that I say it’s a good move, go, and maybe the player doesn’t want to go. Typically, the example that I give as a reference is the case of Alasanna Jatta. When he was going to Notts County, I told him the positives and negatives and told him the final decision was his, and he said he believed in himself and wanted to go, and it turned out to be the best decision. He is the top scorer for Notts County, and the future is surely bright. In Youssoupha, he believes in himself; he believes once he is in Slavia, it’s up to him to work harder and eventually take the next step. He is calm about it, no pressure whatsoever. He is taking positives out of it. He is hoping it will be best for him.”
Beyai further revealed that a host of teams in the English Premier League and a elsewhere were all interested in his player.
“There has been interest from the Premier League, the Championship, the Bundesliga, Belgium, and FC Basel. For me, the way I like to work is to have young players have continuous development. Even though I believe Youssoupha can play in the Premier League, Bundesliga, or any top league, I just felt he needed somewhere to go and develop further. We spoke to all those clubs in England, Germany, and so forth. Slavia showed more commitment, in the sense that they didn’t only stop at saying, Oh, let’s have a call and explain our project. Rather, the sporting director had to fly to meet me and Youssoupha and sit with us to explain the project further.”
“It has been tough with Youssoupha; people don’t even know when he signed for Öster—he was stuck in the Gambia. His work permit took time before coming out. He didn’t even do preseason with Öster; he came one week before the start of the season, and his first game was a cup game took his chance. We are grateful to the coach, Martin, who gave him a chance. Without that chance or belief, to be honest, I doubt if Youssoupha would be where he is today. Along the way, you have people that you should be grateful to, and those are guys that are to be grateful for.”
Swedish Allsvenskan has the highest representation in the Gambia national team, as four players were called for the June international window. Beyai says it’s a positive in the right direction, as the Gambia currently has 8 players combined in the Allsvenskan and Superettan.
“AIK has been to the Gambia several times; I have brought them to the Gambia on many occasions. They know the Gambian market. Hammarby, a couple of weeks ago, were in the Gambia and have identified two players. My policy is that I don’t like announcing trials for obvious reasons. I have two players currently who will be going to the two biggest Scandinavian club. The group of players that are in Sweden are doing very well, Abdoulie Manneh doing very well. The Mjällby sporting director even said they will be bringing in two to three players on trials this summer thanks to the Ablie Manneh effect. Norrköping is also inviting a player from the Gambia on trials, Youssoupha, Ablie who are doing very well is an eye-opener for many to keep an eye on the Gambia. Djurgården was also in the Gambia around April.”
Youssoupha had interest from Odense BK, seen as the replacement of Yankuba Minteh. The Gambian later went for trials in Le Havre, Anderlecht, and KRC Genk, which were all impressive. He joined Västerås on loan before completing a permanent move to Öster IF in January 2025.
Hammarby’s sporting director Jesper Johnsson, who was watching Västerås v. Hammarby was quite interested in him when he saw Youssoupha. He was leaving Hammarby for Öster, and said he would definitely like to bring Youssoupha.
