Mamadou Hamidou Niang (born 13 October 1979) is a Senegalese former professionalfootballer who played as astriker. He has representedSenegal at international level, participating in the2004,2006, and2008 African Cup of Nations. He is the older brother ofPapa Niang, who is also a professional footballer.

Mamadou Niang

Niang with Al-Sadd in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Mamadou Hamidou Niang[1]
Date of birth	(1979-10-13)13 October 1979 (age 45)[2]
Place of birth	Matam, Senegal
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1998–1999	Le Havre
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1999–2001	Troyes B	35	(21)
2001–2003	Troyes	47	(8)
2003	→Metz (loan)	12	(5)
2003–2005	Strasbourg	56	(21)
2005–2010	Marseille	155	(71)
2010–2011	Fenerbahçe	29	(15)
2011–2014	Al Sadd	26	(9)
2013	→Beşiktaş (loan)	10	(3)
2014–2015	Arles-Avignon	17	(2)
Total		387	(155)
International career
2002–2012	Senegal	59	(20)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

After beginning his career with theLe Havre youth team, Niang turned professional at 18 years of age withTroyes. He had a mixed beginning to his career with his first season featuring tenLigue 1 starts, all from the bench, the following season would show little improvement with 17 starts and only 3 league goals.

A loan period withLigue 2 clubFC Metz allowed him to hone his skills, contributing 5 goals in 12 appearances and helping Metz return to top flight French football for the2003–04 season.

Jean Fernandez, the Metz manager, tried to make the loan deal into a permanent move but failed and Niang left Troyes forStrasbourg. The arrival ofDanijel Ljuboja, to Strasbourg at the same time allowed Niang to form an important strike partnership until Ljuboja moved toParis Saint-Germain. Niang didn't score again for the remainder of the second half of that season.

The2004–05 season sawMickaël 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 theCoupe de la Ligue final, where victory overCaen gave Strasbourg their second Coupe de la Ligue trophy. Niang scored Strasbourg's first goal as they won 2–1.^[3]

In 2005, Niang moved toMarseille 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 theCoupe de France final toParis Saint-Germain.

Niang was selected Marseille player of the month by the fans for May 2008.^[4]

Niang would go on to finish the2009–10 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.

Niang signed a 3+1 year deal withFenerbahçe on 14 August 2010 for a fee of reported €8 million.^[5] 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 againstKasımpaşa. He helped his side win the2010–11 Süper Lig, scoring 16 goals in 29 appearances.^[6]

On 6 September 2011, Niang was sold toAl-Sadd for €7.5 million.^[7]

On 19 October 2011, at the2011 AFC Champions League semi-final match againstSuwon Samsung Bluewings, 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.^[8] 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 inDoha.^[9]

On 31 January 2013, Niang moved to Turkish side Beşiktaş on loan until the end of the season.^[10]

On 3 March 2013, he scored his first goal and contributed with an assist in a 3–2 win against his old clubFenerbahçe securing 3 points for his team in the final derby ever onİnönü Stadium.

On 28 August 2014, Niang returned to France to sign forArles-Avignon, having been overseas for the last four years.^[11][12]

Niang represented the national team at the2006 Africa Cup of Nations, where his team took fourth place for the third time in history.^[13]

Scores and results list Senegal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Niang goal.^[16]

Troyes

• UEFA Intertoto Cup:2001

Strasbourg

• Coupe de la Ligue:2004–05

Marseille

• Ligue 1:2009–10
• Coupe de la Ligue:2009–10
• Trophée des Champions:2010
• UEFA Intertoto Cup:2005^[17]

Fenerbahçe

• Süper Lig:2010–11

Al Sadd

• AFC Champions League:2011

Senegal

• Africa Cup of Nations fourth place:2006^[18]

Individual

• UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Month: May 2005, December 2005, December 2007
• UNFPLigue 1 Team of the Year:2007–08,2009–10^[19]
• UNFPLigue 1 Goal of the Year: 2009–10^[20]
• Ligue 1 top scorer: 2009–10^[21]
• Marseille Player of the Season: 2009–10

• Mamadou Niang at theTurkish Football Federation 
• Mamadou Niang – French league stats atLFP – also availablein French (archived)
• Mamadou Niang Fenerbahçe Profile(in Turkish)
• Mamadou Niang at National-Football-Teams.com