Who is Moussa Sissako? The defensive prospect reportedly 'in talks' with Sunderland and on Burnley's radar

Black Cats boss Alex Neil still wants to add four or five players to his squad before the end of the transfer window, and recently hinted the club are closing in on reinforcements.

Sissako’s name has been circling on social media, after Burnley were credited with interest in the 21-year-old earlier this summer.

Here’s what we know:

What’s Sissako’s background?

Born in France, Sissako is of Malian descent and has four caps for the Mali national team.

The centre-back came through the ranks at PSG but didn’t make a senior appearance for the French club.

Sissako moved to Belgium to sign for Standard Liege, initially on loan, in 2020 before making the move permanent later that year.

He has made 34 appearances for Liege and started eight of their last 10 league games during the 2021/22 season.

Where have the Sissako reports come from?

It was reported earlier this summer that Burnley were interested in Sissako, with new Clarets boss Vincent Kompany familiar with the Belgian market.

Sunderland were loosely linked with the defender a few weeks ago and have once again been credited with interest.

According to L’Equipe journalist Loic Tanzi: “Sissako had an offer from Burnley but the defender did not find an agreement with the English club.”

He goes on to say the player is holding “ongoing talks with Sunderland and another overseas club.”

What sort of player is he?

Sissako is a right-footed defender who has played in a back four and a back three for Standard Liege, as both a right or left-sided centre-back.

The 21-year-old, who is 6 ft 2, appears comfortable on the ball and was successful with 77.7% of his forward passes in the Belgian First Division last season (according to Wyscout).

He won 70% of his defensive duels and 60.9 per cent of his aerial duels.

Are Sunderland looking to sign another centre-back?

At the start of the season Sunderland appeared well stocked at centre-back following the arrivals of Daniel Ballard and Aji Alese, while Bailey Wright and Danny Batth performed well at the end of the 2021/22 campaign.

Still, an injury to Ballard, which will keep the defender sidelined for the foreseeable future, and Sunderland’s change of shape to a back three has left Neil short of defensive options.

Neil has recently said Ballard’s injury has made signing another defender more of a priority, but warned that the search would not be straightforward.

"Yeah, Dan has been a key signing for us, he’s got mobility, he’s good on the ball, big and strong, his best years are ahead of him,” said Neil.

"He’s everything we want in a signing.

"Realistically, those players are really, really hard to come by, particularly for what we can afford. I could give you a list of players right now, in fact I’ve got a list in my draw, but the difficult part is: what can you get for where we are and what we’re trying to do.”

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