This feature originally appeared in the 2024-25 Winter edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.

 
Mady Sissoko is a big man with a bigger heart.
 
He left his home village of Tangafoya, Mali, at the age of 15 to pursue a better life by playing basketball in the United States, a sport that he only loosely understood in a country that he could hardly imagine. Now 23 years old, Sissoko, a graduate student and starting center on the California men's basketball team, has not just made the most of his own opportunity; he's dramatically impacted the lives of those in Tangafoya for the better.
 
Sissoko is a shining example of the good – the great – that has come from NCAA athletes earning opportunities through Name, Image and Likeness since the summer of 2021, when he was a rising sophomore at Michigan State. While most college athletes can profit from NIL, Sissoko attends school in the United States on a student visa and therefore is prohibited from directly benefitting from such opportunities.
 
Instead, Sissoko found a way within NCAA rules to give back to the people of Tangafoya. With the help of former guardians Mike Clayton and Paul Olson, among others, he created the Mady Sissoko Foundation -  a 501(c)(3) charity into which he has routed donations and other charitable contributions. He quickly surpassed the original goal of raising $50,000 and has since put the money toward building Tangafoya's first school, a well for clean drinking water and an irrigation system for farming, the purchase of a tractor and soon, the construction of a medical clinic. Donations and support continue to come in through
Sissoko's GoFundMe campaign, which has raised more than $70,000.
 
"People there don't have the same opportunities. There's a lot of people who need help," Sissoko said of his home village, which is located a little more than 350 miles away from Mali's capital, Bamako. "I'm fortunate to have this opportunity, and I'm always going to do everything I can to give back to those who need it."
 
It was Clayton and Olson who played unexpected roles in bringing Sissoko to the United States. The two worked together at the Utah Valley Eye Center in Provo and made multiple humanitarian aid trips to Mali to perform cataract surgeries starting in 2011. On a trip in 2015, one of Sissoko's three older brothers – Mady is the youngest of 10 children in his family – Souleymane Sissoko, who was a Malian soldier assigned to provide security to Clayton and Olson's group, approached them about his taller, younger brother and the prospect of bringing him to the United States to play basketball.
 
Clayton and Olson – eye doctors, not basketball scouts – were faced with a dilemma.
 
"We were there to help a lot of people, not necessarily just one," said Clayton, who has already attended multiple Cal home games this season in support of Sissoko. "In hindsight, the decision to help bring Mady to the United States has resulted in hundreds – thousands - of lives being impacted for the better, all of which is a testament to the person he is."
 
Even Sissoko himself was not initially fully bought into the idea of leaving home for an unfamiliar land, let alone playing a game that he had only just started to figure out. After eventual conversations took place between Clayton, Olson and Sissoko's parents, the decision was made and Sissoko was convinced – he was heading to the United States. Sissoko arrived in Utah in 2016 unable to speak English, and began his uphill battle of adapting to a foreign culture.
 
Gone were the 90-minute walks from Tangafoya – a village of less than 1,000 people – to the nearest school. Gone were the long days of farming with his family, an essential task that'd dictate whether they'd eat the next day or not. But Sissoko's determination never left him, despite certain luxuries now being within arm's reach.
 
"It was a struggle early on; I didn't know how to communicate with those around me," Sissoko said.
 
Sissoko enrolled at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, and put in the work, battling homesickness and the struggles of learning English, which in turn impacted how effective he could be on the basketball court. By the time he landed in East Lansing, Michigan, in the fall of 2020, Sissoko was the top-ranked basketball prospect in the state of Utah and ranked around the top 40 nationally.
 
Sissoko went on to play 121 career games for the Spartans, including six NCAA Tournament contests, and earned his undergraduate degree in environmental science from Michigan State last spring. He was also a two-time Academic All-Big Ten Team selection.
 
With an undergraduate degree in hand and one year of college eligibility remaining, Sissoko decided to play for Cal and second-year head coach Mark Madsen, who was familiar with Sissoko from his time leading the Utah Valley men's basketball program. The two big men – approximately 6-foot-9 – quickly bonded on a recruiting visit Madsen paid to East Lansing, which was soon followed by a commitment from Sissoko. Now one of two team-elected captains for the Golden Bears, Sissoko is a leader both by voice and actions.
 
"When you talk about a player-led team, it's guys like Mady that are at the center of those successes," Madsen said. "The selfless basketball player that he is on the court is indicative of the attitude he carries himself with off the court and in his community. He's an outstanding representative of our program."
 
Sissoko's efforts to provide for Tangafoya continue. His NIL earnings and other charitable contributions are still funneled into the Mady Sissoko Foundation, with plans to build a medical clinic that will be run by a government-paid physician, as well as the expansion of the school, which is attended by 400 or so youth.
 
He returned to the village with Clayton months after the completion of the Mady Sissoko Foundation School in 2023 and again last spring, both to a hero's welcome. Children and families, not only from Tangafoya, were there to greet and thank him. The experience left Sissoko with an unforgettable image of joy.
 
"Mady's face was one giant smile. To see the rejoicing, to see his village surround him with love, it was truly emotional," Clayton said. "It's a blessing for so many people – it's a blessing for Mady. Giving back to his home has been all that's ever mattered to him."