Bara Sapoko Ndiaye looks set for a long-term future at FC Bayern. According to tz, the club will sign the loan midfielder from partner academy Gambino Stars Africa on a permanent deal this summer and may even include the 18-year-old in the first-team squad for next season.
Manager Vincent Kompany is said to be a driving force behind the move, having first spotted the 18-year-old during a friendly against Grasshoppers Zurich and publicly advocating for his signing.
Ndiaye had already spent two months training with Bayern’s reserves and U19s in 2025, then completed pre-season with Grasshoppers, who are indirectly linked to the Red&Gold network via majority ownership by Bayern’s partner Los Angeles FC.
A subsequent friendly against Bayern proved pivotal: under Kompany he trained regularly with the first team from winter onwards, made his Bundesliga debut in mid-April despite injury setbacks, and has since appeared four times, twice from the start.
Sporting director Christoph Freund told the club magazine 51, “Week after week, we see how he adapts better and better. He has quickly become a valuable part of the team.” Kompany, for his part, lauded the midfielder’s pace, noting that he clocked a club-record 36 km/h in training. “Things are going well for him,” the head coach concluded.
Freund also rates his rapid integration off the pitch just as highly: “He’s a great character, popular in the dressing room, and he works hard. Communication was important to him from day one, and settling in quickly is no small feat.”
His integration has been eased by the fact that several Bayern players are fluent in French, with Dayot Upamecano taking the midfielder under his wing; the pair have already shared several meals. Upamecano is “like an older brother” to him, says Bara, and the pair even share a familial link: their mothers both come from the same town in Guinea-Bissau.