Cal Basketball's Mady Sissoko: Lifting Others Back Home in Mali

The Bears' new center builds a school and a well in his African village through his non-profit foundation

Mady Sissoko assists on a basket at the school he funded / Photo courtesy of Mady Sissoko

Mady Sissoko at Haas Pavilion / Photo by Jeff Faraudo

Everything about Mady Sissoko’s life reads like fiction.

A 6-foot-9 graduate student and center for the Cal basketball team, Sissoko comes from the impoverished west African country of Mali, where two-thirds of adults are illiterate, life expectancy is 59 and most people in rural areas deal with poor sanitation and no access to safe drinking water.

Sissoko grew up in Tangafoya, a remote farming community of fewer than 1,000 people, where there are no cars, no electricity and, until recently, no school.

He came to America at the age of 15, unable to read or speak English. He’d never held a pencil or a pen, never seen a swimming pool and didn’t even know how toilet paper was used.

“It’s been almost nine years since he came here,” Mike Clayton, who helped bring Sissoko to America, said this week. “He went from there, being a skinny 180-pound, shy kid with kind of hunched shoulders, and look at him now.”

Sissoko graduated from Wasatch Academy in Utah, played four years of basketball at Michigan State and maintained a 3.0 grade-point average on his way to earning a degree in communications. Yes, the young man who didn’t speak a word of English, is now fluent.

He’s also a hero back home. Unable to benefit from NIL financial opportunities because athletes on student visas are not permitted to earn money, Sissoko began a non-profit foundation.

Mady Sissoko poses in front of the school he funded / Photo courtesy of Mady Sissoko

Instead of buying himself a fancy car with NIL cash, Sissoko built a school in his home village. He provided a well for clean drinking water and crop irrigation. He bought the community a tractor. And now his foundation is funding the construction of a medical clinic that will be run by a physician paid by the government.

“He’s done it in his own humble way. Doesn’t take a lot of credit for everything he’s done,” Clayton said. “But he’s sure accomplished a lot.”

Sissoko returned home in the summer of 2023 after his junior season at Michigan State to see first-hand the impact he’s had on his community.

It was an overwhelming experience.

“Oh man, me getting out of the car and all the children surrounding me,” he recalled. “The whole village was there and just seeing the smiles on their faces. 

“It made me cry inside. I was excited, but I was crying. You don’t see many things happen like that. People from other villages came, too.”

Clayton, who provided vidoes shown here, accompanied Sissoko on the trip and was stunned by the reaction.

“His face lit up because he could see on the road just hundreds of kids and people that knew he was coming. They had just waited there, not knowing exactly his arrival time.” Clayton said. “We pulled up and he just got so excited. Got out of the car and they just swarmed around him. It was a beautiful sight.

“They look at him as though he saved their village.”

For Sissoko, the event took some time to sink in. “At the moment, I was like these are my people, these are my friends. Let’s celebrate this together,” Sissoko said. “But after I came back to America I was like, `Wow! This is so big. This is amazing.’ It’s my people.”

In the video above, Sissoko greets locals at Tangafoya, including his father (with the cane), who has since passed away.

Clayton is a Utah businessman who has led dozens of medical missions to Africa, allowing doctors to perform free on villagers. 

In 2015 while in Tangafoya, he was approached by Souleymane Sissoko, one of Mady’s nine older siblings, who was a member of the Mali military and assigned to provide security to the visiting doctors.

Souleymane mentioned his tall little brother to Clayton and wondered if there was a means to get him to America to attend school and play basketball.

Sissoko listened to his brother’s proposal but had his doubts.

“I was very unsure. Honestly, I didn’t take it seriously because no way someone could give you a chance to come to America to go to school or play basketball,” he said. “I had no knowledge of playing basketball — I just barely started. I was like, that’s not going to happen. I didn’t envision what would happen.”

His brother argued it was a chance to do something big and their parents endorsed the plan.

“They said this is life-changing for you. We think this is going to be great for you,” Sissoko said. “Once I heard my parents so excited, I was yeah, I think this is a good idea. That got me excited, too.”

Sissoko had an image in his mind of what America looked like. “I thought everywhere was just like New York City.”

Instead, his journey in America began at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, a community of 4,000 located 100 miles south of Salt Lake City and more than a mile above sea level.

Hardly the Big Apple and certainly not Tangafoya.

Clayton became a legal guardian, as did the Applegarth family, with whom he lived throughout high school. Sissoko is grateful for all the love and guidance he received, but the transition wasn’t easy. The language was the biggest immediate obstacle, but Sissoko also missed his family more than 6,300 miles away.

“I really struggled. I wasn’t able to speak to anybody,” he said. 

When he finally was able to arrange a phone call home, he told his Mom, “I don’t know if I can do this.”

His family counseled him to be patient, work hard and learn. They assured him that all was fine at home. 

His teachers at Wasatch gave him time to adjust and extra tutoring. One of his basketball teammates spoke French, one of two languages Sissoko knew. He eventually met a girl on campus who also came from Mali.

While playing basketball, Sissoko became acquainted with Mark Madsen, was recruiting a Wasatch player to Utah Valley, where he coached at the time.

Years later, when Sissoko decided to transfer out of Michigan State for his final season, he already knew the new coach at Cal. “I just wanted to come here and be the player he thinks I can be,” Sissoko said of Madsen.

A full classroom at the school Mady Sissoko funded / Photo courtesy of Mady Sissoko

He was in his sophomore season at Michigan State when the notion of creating a foundation and helping back home first was spawned. Sissoko had to walk 30 minutes to the nearest school when he was a youngster and by the time he began fourth grade the walk was 90 minutes.

“I see a lot of people quitting. The kids are so tired, they’re hungry,” he said. “That’s what encouraged me to build the school.”

The foundation’s initial goal was to raise $50,000. Through the support of Michigan State fans, they far exceeded that target.

“When we started, I didn’t know if we were going to get it done,” Sissoko admitted. “People didn’t know anything about my village. They could be saying this is not true. We know him, but we don’t know his background. 

“Man, the community at Michigan State trusted me and helped me so much. I’m so grateful to them.”

It helped that Michigan State coach Tom Izzo gave his endorsement to the project. He had no doubt Sissoko would make it happen.

“Surprised? No, I’m not at all surprised,’’ Izzo told The Athletic last year. “That’s the kind of kid he is. He never worries about himself. He’s always thinking about other people.”

Excited about the prospects of his new team at Cal, which opens its season Monday at home against Cal State Bakersfield, Sissoko talks about the Bears in the video above.

At Michigan State, he made 59 starts the past two years, averaging 4.2 points and 5.6 rebounds for a team that played in the NCAA tournament each of his four seasons.

But hoops was just a piece of Sissoko’s story after taking a chance and coming to America. Clayton recognized a strong work ethic and a respect for others in Sissoko when the two first met and saw intriguing potential.

“With the combination of his height and athleticism and humility I knew he could become something,” Clayton said. “But I never dreamed it would be what it has become.”

Sissoko remains appreciative of everyone who has aided in a journey he could not really envision.

“It makes me so grateful for me coming here,” Sissoko said, “and doing things for not just my family but the whole village.”