Moussa Niakhaté is a tall and imposing left-footed centre-back who signed for Lyon from Nottingham Forest for €31.9 million in July 2024. He was ostensibly brough in to replace Jake O’Brien, who was sold to Everton at around the same time.
Niakhaté was born into a family of Senegalese origin living near Lille in the north of France and he soon found his way onto the books of local giants LOSC as a member of their youth academy. However, after seven years at the club, he was released aged fifteen and spent the following two seasons trying his luck at nearby Wasquehal and Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Breakthrough at Valenciennes
Eventually he settled at Valenciennes in 2013 and earned his chance in the first team a year later, making his debut as an eighteen year old in a 0-3 home defeat to Dijon in Ligue 2 in October 2014. Niakhaté went on to accrue ten appearances across all competitions in that first season with the senior team and managed to establish himself as a regular starter early in the 2015-16 campaign.
Valenciennes manager Faruk Hadžibegić used the young Niakhaté primarily as a left-back during his time at the club, and it was during this period that he also got his first call-ups to the French national setup at Under-19 and Under-20 levels. His star was on the rise and in July 2017 he made the step up to Ligue 1 with a transfer to Metz, having made seventy-eight appearances and scored one goal for Valenciennes.
Tough times at Metz
Moussa Niakhaté’s association with Metz proved to be a baptism of fire to top-flight football for the promising young defender. He went straight into the first team as a left-sided centre-back alongside fellow Franco-Senegalese defender Fallou Diagne at the heart of the Metz defence. However, they struggled badly and were glued to the bottom of the table from week four of the season onwards, eventually finishing seven points adrift of anyone else and conceding the most goals in the division.
Despite the abysmal results and relegation, Niakhaté must have been doing some things right as he was saved from a return to Ligue 2 by German Bundesliga club FSV Mainz, who came in with a €6 million offer for him in summer 2018 and the promise of a five year contract. He jumped at the chance to try his luck across the border in Germany.
Maturing in Mainz
Now aged twenty-two, Niakhaté was drafted straight into the first team at Mainz and made his debut in the first game of the season, a 1-0 win at home to Stuttgart, during which he partnered club captain Stefan Bell at centre-back. Niakhaté barely missed a game over the next four seasons and went on to become the club vice-captain as Mainz finished consistently in mid-table in the Bundesliga.
During his time at Mainz, Moussa Niakhaté made his debut for the France Espoirs (U-21) team and picked up a total of eleven caps for them. Whilst in Germany, he also developed the knack of scoring the occasional goal, finding the net nine times in his 135 appearances for ‘Die Nullfünfer‘.
In the summer of 2022, Niakhaté moved on again to try his luck in another new country. This time the destination was England and the Premier League where he became one of twenty-seven new signings in an astonishing transfer splurge by newly promoted Nottingham Forest. The reported fee was around €10 million.
Frustrated at Forest
He enjoyed mixed fortunes at Forest in terms of playing time. His first season at the City Ground was blighted by injury. Having started the first two games of the season, he picked up a hamstring injury, which kept him out of action until March. He regained his place for the final twelve matches as Forest finished a creditable sixteenth in the table.
Niakhaté did manage more appearances in the 2023-24 season, although he was in and out of the line-up, starting only fifteen of their thirty-eight Premier League fixtures. He did, at least, score his first (and only) goal in English football in a 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa at Villa Park. Unfortunately he was dropped for the following seven matches, reappearing only for the final five games of the season, of which he started three.
Given that he wasn’t an automatic first choice at the club, it came as no surprise that Forest were willing to part with his services when Olympique Lyonnais came in with an offer at the end of the season. What was a surprise was the size of that offer. Lyon’s American owner John Textor stumped up €31.9 million for a player who was only valued at half that amount by the respected website Transfermarkt. It’ll be a tall order for Niakhaté to justify that fee, especially as Lyon were reportedly struggling to comply with financial fair play regulations at the time, but hopefully he can perform to the requisite level.
Switching to Senegal
Finally, a word on Moussa Niakhaté’s international career to date. He played his final match for the France Espoirs in June 2019 in a warm-up for the UEFA European U-21 Championships. He was included in the squad for the finals, but remained on the bench throughout the tournament as a France team including Houssem Aouar, Lucas Tousart, Jeff Reine-Adélaïde and Moussa Dembélé lost 4-1 to Spain in the semi-finals.
Three years later, with no sign of a call-up to the full French squad on the horizon, he made the decision to switch to Senegal and accept a call-up from their national team manager Aliou Cissé. His hamstring injury meant that he had to wait until March 2023 to make his debut as a late substitute in a 5-1 home win against Mozambique in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying. He made his first start in the return match a few days later, a 1-0 win for the Lions of Teranga away in Maputo.
Niakhaté was included in the Senegal squad for the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast in January 2024 and unfortunately he proved to be the fall guy in the penalty shoot-out against the hosts in the Round of 16. He was the only player to miss his spot kick following a 1-1 draw which ended Senegal’s participation in the tournament.