Frenchman Malang Sarr, the new defender of the NEOM first football team, was born on 23 January 1999 in the city of Nice in the south of the country. He is of Senegalese descent, as his parents emigrated to France in search of a better life, and settled in the Moulin district, which witnessed the young defender's upbringing and childhood full of passion for football. Sarr started with French club Nice, joining their academy in 2005 at the age of six, and progressed through the youth ranks until being promoted to the first team in 2016 under coach Lucien Favre, and made his official debut in the French league on 14 August 2016 against Rennes, scoring the only winning goal at the age of 17, and continued with Nice until 2020, during which he played 102 matches and scored three goals in various competitions. He then left for London to wear the shirt of English Chelsea on 27 August 2020 in a free transfer with a five-year contract, and the English club loaned him on 6 October 2020 to Portuguese Porto for the 2020-2021 season, where he played 19 matches in various competitions, including eight matches in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, six matches in the UEFA Champions League, and scored one goal in the Portuguese League Cup against Paços de Ferreira, and also played eight matches with Porto's B team, scoring one goal. The defender returned to Chelsea in the 2021-2022 season, making his first appearance in the English Premier League against Brentford on 16 October 2021, and played 21 matches with the Blues that season, including a substitute appearance in the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final against Saudi Al-Hilal, contributing to the team's title win, and reaching the FA Cup final and the League Cup final. Sarr moved on loan to French club Monaco in August 2022 for the 2022-2023 season, playing 13 matches in the French league and three matches in the Europa League, then returned to Chelsea for the 2023-2024 season, where he was excluded from the main squad and did not play any official match, leading to the mutual termination of his contract with Chelsea on 24 July 2024. The defender signed a transfer contract with French club Lens on 26 July 2024 for two seasons, and played 54 matches in the French league during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons, before ending his contract and leaving Lens for free in June 2026, heading to a new experience by finalizing his transfer procedures to Saudi club NEOM. On the international level, he represented France in all youth categories from under-16 to under-21, playing approximately 44 matches, and was captain of the under-18 team on some occasions. He received calls from the Senegalese federation to represent his country of origin, but he chose to focus on the French national team initially, then later expressed his desire to play for Senegal before the 2026 World Cup without being selected. Malang Sarr's height is 1.83 meters, his weight is around 70 to 73 kilograms, and he prefers to play with his left foot.