Pape Matar Sarr: Tottenham star sends Roberto De Zerbi message in Senegal draw

Pape Matar Sarr will have caught Roberto De Zerbi and Tottenham Hotspur's attention with his substitute cameo for Senegal on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old will be hoping to enjoy a memorable summer with his Senegal side over the coming weeks, after being named in their World Cup squad.

Fresh off the back of a 37-game season for Tottenham in all competitions, Sarr hasn't quite cemented a starting role in North London as of yet.

Signed from Metz in the summer of 2021, the central midfielder has played 141 times in all competitions for Spurs, scoring 11 goals.

Last term saw him start just 13 of his 26 Premier League appearances, but was able to contribute with two goals and four assists.

As such, he will know that he needs a big World Cup campaign if he's to give himself a good chance of becoming a key player in De Zerbi's Lilywhites team for next season.

How Pape Matar Sarr fared for Senegal vs Saudi Arabia

Senegal kick-off their World Cup campaign against France on Tuesday 16 June, before clashing with Norway and Iraq in Group I respectively.

Pape Thiaw's side will be confident of getting out of that group, but before they get cracking with that mission, they had one final pre-tournament friendly to contest.

The Lions of Teranga met with Saudi Arabia in the early hours of Wednesday morning UK time, and played out a goalless draw.

Sarr was named on the bench initially, but came on with 62 minutes having expired, replacing Sunderland's Habib Diarra.

Twenty-eight minutes was all the Tottenham talent needed to leave his impression on the match, and if De Zerbi was watching, he will no doubt have been left impressed.

As per FotMob, Sarr completed all 17 of his pass attempts successfully, whilst also playing three passes into the final third and being dispossessed zero times.

Meanwhile, he also completed one successful dribble, was accurate with all three of his long ball attempts and won three of his five ground duels as well.

In defence, Sarr won one tackle and made one interception as well as one recovery, taking a total of 23 touches in the time he was on the pitch.

Conor Gallagher revelation was last thing Sarr needed

Tottenham's central midfield room is crowded to say the least.

Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Joao Palhinha (if he re-signs) and even young Callum Olusesi are all vying for minutes through the middle.

Because of that, Sarr perhaps saw his most likely route to a Tottenham starting role in attacking midfield, but now that may well have slammed shut.

The emergence of Conor Gallagher as a number 10 under De Zerbi was one of the big positives at the end of last season, and the 26-year-old looks primed to make that spot his own moving forward.

Sarr may now find it very difficult to battle through the midfield crowd in N17, so it's perhaps not an understatement to say that he's playing for his Tottenham future at the World Cup this summer.