Just five seasons into her WNBA career, Satou Sabally already has two All-Star appearances and one All-WNBA First Team selection on her resume. When healthy, she has been one of the top players in the league.
That alone comes with a lot of expectations, but Sabally also has to deal with pressure beyond the WNBA. Sabally is not only expected to be one of the keys to the Phoenix Mercury’s success in the 2025 WNBA season. She also has to handle the pressure of representing her country.
Sabally grew up in Germany and led the German national team to its first-ever Olympics in 2024 despite suffering a serious shoulder injury during the qualifiers in Brazil.
Satou Sabally is the face of women’s basketball in Germany
While Sabally has WNBA-level teammates on the national team—mainly her sister Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich—she is the current face of women’s basketball in Germany. That means she is not only representing her country with the national team but also every time she steps onto the WNBA court.
A documentary on the German TV channel ZDF shed light on Sabally’s role with the national team and the pressure that comes with it.
“Satou carries the burden of German basketball for the women,” Marc Campbell, Sabally’s coach at the University of Oregon, said in the documentary.
Sabally’s older sister added, “Diese Doppelbelastung von WNBA spielen und dann auch noch in Europa spielen ist wirklich sehr hard und Ich glaube das ist auch so dieser mentale Teil der so schwer ist.” (English translation: “Playing both in the WNBA and then also in Europe is really hard, and I think it is also this mental part that is so difficult.”)
Despite the stress and pressure, Sabally has made it clear that she enjoys representing her country and giving women’s basketball a new face in Germany. Sabally is currently the only German who has been a WNBA All-Star or All-WNBA First Team member. For a long time, young basketball players in Germany did not have a female star to look up to.
Satou Sabally has big plans for the German national team
Germany is not known for its success in women’s basketball. 2024 marked the first time the women’s national team made it to the Olympics.
With a strong, young core of Satou and Nyara Sabally, Leonie Fiebich, Luisa Geiselöder, who just signed a training camp contract with the Dallas Wings, and others, the team should from now on be a regular threat in international competition. They did, after all, beat Belgium and Japan in Paris while Satou Sabally was not in her best shape post-injury.
Sabally embraces her role as the face of the national team and has big goals she wants to accomplish. She said in the documentary that she hopes to be on the same level as the U.S. and France, and wants to win a medal at the next Olympics.