Soccer leads Senegal in 2022, ahead of Traditional wrestling (Laamb) and Basketball. Ranking of 6 sports.
This page ranks the sports of Senegal by the evidence behind each one, because für Senegal ließ sich keine einzige Kennzahl finden, die für alle Sportarten der Rangliste gleichermaßen belegt und vergleichbar ist. Für einzelne Sportarten (Ringen, Judo, Boxen) fanden sich Verbandszahlen, aber aus unterschiedlichen Jahren und ohne eine landesweite Erhebung, die alle Sportarten gemeinsam erfasst; für Fußball, Basketball und Leichtathletik ließ sich trotz gezielter Suche keine Mitglieder- oder Lizenzzahl der jeweiligen Verbände auftreiben. Jede Zeile der Rangliste trägt deshalb ihren eigenen belegten Grund in ‘beleg’ statt einer vergleichbaren Zahl in ‘wert’.
Soccer is on top, followed by Traditional wrestling (Laamb) and Basketball. The full table below covers 6 sports, and every section further down names the source for the figure it uses.
The Most Popular Sports in Senegal
The table counts evidence, not people who say they like a sport. It is the figure that is published the same way for every sport in the list, which is what makes the rows comparable.
| # | Sport | Basis for the placing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soccer | Sadio Mane scored the winning spot-kick … 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory over seven-time winners Egypt. |
| 2 | Traditional wrestling (Laamb) | Au cours de cet exercice, 3.797 lutteurs ont achete chacun une licence au CNG : 1.001 en lutte avec frappe, 2.706 en lutte sans frappe, 68 en lutte Olympique et 22 en Beach Wrestli |
| 3 | Basketball | Senegal is the most successful team in the tournament’s history, having won eleven continental titles. |
| 4 | Athletics | sa premiere et unique medaille olympique |
| 5 | Judo | La federation senegalaise de judo et disciplines associees compte pres de 10 000 pratiquants repartis dans 80 clubs au Senegal. |
| 6 | Boxing | on denombre pas moins de 4 Ligues, 21 clubs et 15 ecoles de boxe. Il y a en tout 650 licencies et 15 arbitres. |
Most Played and Most Watched Are Not the Same Sport
Membership and license numbers tell you what people do. Audience figures tell you what they watch, and the two lists rarely have the same sport on top.
| Sport | Figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Soccer | 3.37 million | The 2026 Africa Cup of Nations final between Senegal and Morocco averaged 3.37 million viewers on French channel M6, the tournament’s best French audience in 18 years. |
Is There a National Sport of Senegal?
Senegal has no national sport laid down by law or by government decision. Senegal’s Code du Sport, adopted by the National Assembly in 2025 to replace the 1984 Sports Charter, sets out governance and professionalization rules for sport but does not designate any single discipline as the country’s official national sport.
- Traditional wrestling (Laamb). Au-Senegal, an official information portal on the country, describes traditional wrestling as Senegal’s quintessential traditional sport, regulated nationally by the CNG wrestling committee even though it carries no legal national-sport status.
Sports That Were Invented in Senegal
- Traditional wrestling (Laamb). Senegalese wrestling traces back centuries to ancestral ceremonies and rites among Senegal’s peoples, notably the Serer in the south of the country, where bouts marked the end of harvests.
#1 Soccer
- Governing body: Senegalese Football Federation
- Top national league: Ligue 1 (Senegal)
- Best known athlete: Sadio Mane. Scored the decisive penalty in the shoot-out that gave Senegal its first-ever Africa Cup of Nations title on February 6, 2022, in Yaounde, after missing an earlier penalty in the same match
Soccer is organized nationally by the Senegalese Football Federation and played through the men’s top flight, Ligue 1, and a network of amateur and youth competitions across the country. The national team, the Lions of Teranga, won its first Africa Cup of Nations title on February 6, 2022, beating Egypt in a penalty shoot-out in Yaounde.
Sadio Mane converted the winning spot-kick in that shoot-out, sealing a 4-2 victory after Egypt’s seven prior tournament wins. Senegal reached the AFCON final again in 2026, though the result of that match became the subject of a prolonged dispute that was still unresolved months after the final whistle.
Latest Posts about Soccer
#2 Traditional wrestling (Laamb)
- Governing body: Comite National de Gestion de la Lutte (CNG)
- Best known athlete: Balla Gaye 2 (Omar Sakho). Defeated Tapha Tine at Senegal’s national wrestling arena on July 21, 2024, a win that made him the new emperor of the arenas, the sport’s unofficial top title
Traditional wrestling, known in Wolof as laamb, is regulated by the CNG, the national wrestling management committee, which licenses fighters every season. For the 2023-2024 season the CNG counted 3,797 licensed wrestlers, split between the striking and non-striking disciplines plus small Olympic and beach wrestling categories.
The sport has its own professional circuit and stars who fill stadiums for individual bouts. Balla Gaye 2 became the reigning emperor of the arenas in July 2024 after beating Tapha Tine at the national wrestling arena, extending a career that has made him one of the sport’s most recognized fighters.
#3 Basketball
- Governing body: Federation Senegalaise de Basket-Ball
- Best known athlete: Gorgui Dieng. Played a 10-year NBA career while continuing to represent Senegal, and averaged 22.9 points and 14.9 rebounds per game at AfroBasket 2015; he now serves as Vice-President of the Senegalese basketball federation
Basketball is run by the Federation Senegalaise de Basket-Ball, and the women’s national team is, according to FIBA, the most successful side in Women’s AfroBasket history with eleven continental titles, the most recent won in 2015. The men’s program has also produced a steady stream of players who reached the NBA.
Gorgui Dieng is among the best known of them, combining a decade of NBA service with continued appearances for Senegal, including a standout AfroBasket 2015 campaign. He has since moved into administration as Vice-President of the national federation.
Latest Posts about Basketball
#4 Athletics
- Governing body: Federation Senegalaise d’Athletisme
- Best known athlete: Amadou Dia Ba. Won Senegal’s only Olympic medal, a silver in the 400m hurdles at the 1988 Seoul Games, finishing in 47.23 seconds, a national record that still stands
Athletics remains the sport that produced Senegal’s only Olympic medal to date. Amadou Dia Ba took silver in the 400m hurdles at the 1988 Seoul Games, a result Senegalese public broadcaster RTS still describes as the country’s first and only Olympic medal decades later.
That single result has kept track and field prominent in national sporting memory even without a run of recent international medals, and Dia Ba’s time of 47.23 seconds from that race remains the national record in the event.
Latest Posts about Athletics
#5 Judo
- Governing body: Federation Senegalaise de Judo et Disciplines Associees
- Best known athlete: Hortance Diedhiou. Competed at four consecutive Olympic Games (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016) and won three African senior judo titles
Judo is organized by the Federation Senegalaise de Judo et Disciplines Associees, which the federation’s own information page credits with close to 10,000 practitioners spread across 80 clubs nationwide, a base built through school and club programs in the Dakar region and beyond.
Hortance Diedhiou has been the sport’s most visible face internationally, competing at four straight Olympic Games between 2004 and 2016 and collecting three African senior titles along the way.
Latest Posts about Judo
#6 Boxing
- Governing body: Federation Senegalaise de Boxe
- Best known athlete: Battling Siki (Louis M’barick Fall). Born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, he defeated Georges Carpentier in Paris in 1922 to win the world light heavyweight title, becoming Africa’s first world boxing champion
Boxing has a smaller organized base than Senegal’s leading sports. A 2014 count by the national federation found 4 leagues, 21 clubs and 15 boxing schools nationwide, with 650 licensed boxers and 15 referees in total, most of them concentrated in Dakar.
The sport’s biggest historical name predates that structure by decades. Battling Siki, born Louis M’barick Fall in Saint-Louis, beat Georges Carpentier in Paris in 1922 to become Africa’s first world boxing champion, a result still cited as a landmark in African sport.
Latest Posts about Boxing
Sources
- Al Jazeera
- LutteTV, citing the Comite National de Gestion de la Lutte (CNG)
- FIBA
- RTS (Radiodiffusion Television Senegalaise)
- Au-Senegal
- EnQuete+
- Sponsoring.fr, citing Mediametrie
- Agence de Presse Senegalaise (APS)
- Au-Senegal
- Pivot (Quebec)
- LutteTV, citing the Comite National de Gestion de la Lutte (CNG)
- FIBA
- Au-Senegal
- EnQuete+
Figures on this page come from national federations and statistics offices and are only as current as their latest published report. Last reviewed: August 2026.
FAQ
What is the most popular sport in Senegal?
There is no single nationwide participation survey covering all sports in Senegal, but football and traditional wrestling are consistently the two leading sports. Senegal’s men’s football team won its first Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, while the national wrestling committee licensed 3,797 wrestlers for the 2023-2024 season alone.
What is the national sport of Senegal?
Senegal has no sport designated as national sport by law. The country’s 2025 Code du Sport, which replaced the 1984 Sports Charter, sets rules for governing sport but names no official national sport. Traditional wrestling is nonetheless widely described as the country’s traditional sport par excellence.
What is Senegalese wrestling, or laamb?
Laamb is Senegal’s traditional wrestling, tracing back to ancestral harvest ceremonies among peoples such as the Serer. It is regulated today by the CNG, the national wrestling management committee, which licensed 3,797 wrestlers across striking, non-striking, Olympic and beach wrestling categories in the 2023-2024 season.
How popular is basketball in Senegal?
Basketball has a strong following in Senegal, built on the women’s national team’s record in continental competition and a steady pipeline of players to the NBA. FIBA credits the women’s team as the most successful in Women’s AfroBasket history, with eleven continental titles, the most recent in 2015.
What sports are played in Senegal?
Football and traditional wrestling draw the largest followings, backed respectively by Senegal’s 2022 Africa Cup of Nations title and the national wrestling committee’s thousands of licensed fighters. Basketball, athletics, judo and boxing also have organized national federations, with basketball’s women’s team the most decorated in continental history and athletics holding Senegal’s only Olympic medal, won in 1988.
