Pape Alassane Gueye

Pape Alassane Gueye's move to Watford was supposed to be settled in the spring of 2020. Instead it collapsed that June, after he broke with his agent, Bakari Sanogo, and turned down a five-year contract worth less than €30,000 a month. He had spent three seasons at Le Havre, where he made his professional debut in 2017 and went on to play 39 matches for the club. With the Watford deal dead, he signed for Olympique de Marseille instead, a move reported at around €3 million, and went on to make 89 appearances for the club, scoring four goals.

In January 2023 he joined Sevilla on loan for the rest of the season. He made 16 appearances and scored once, though when Sevilla won the Europa League that season he was not registered for the competition and could not play in the knockout rounds. He left as a free agent in July 2024 to join Villarreal on a four-year contract.

His biggest moments have come with Senegal. He was part of the squad that won the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, and started against Ecuador at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final against Morocco, on 18 January 2026, Gueye scored the winning goal in extra time to put Senegal 1–0 up — only for the match to be overshadowed by a walkout in the 90th minute over a disputed penalty. The CAF Appeal Board later ruled that Senegal had forfeited the final, handing the title to Morocco. Gueye was still named in the Team of the Tournament. He carried that form into the 2026 World Cup, where he scored twice and was named Man of the Match in a 5–0 win over Iraq. In 2022, he received Senegal's Grand Officer of the National Order of the Lion.