We introduce the rigorous limit process connecting finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems with ODE constraints, modelling parsimonious interventions on the dynamics of a moving population divided into leaders and followers, to an infinite dimensional optimal control problem with a constraint given by a system of ODE for the leaders coupled with a PDE of Vlasov-type, governing the dynamics of the probability distribution of the followers. In the classical mean-field theory, one studies the behaviour of a large number of small individuals freely interacting with each other, by simplifying the effect of all the other individuals on any given individual by a single averaged effect. In this paper, we address instead the situation where the leaders are actually influenced also by an external policy maker , and we propagate its effect for the number N of followers going to infinity. The technical derivation of the sparse mean-field optimal control is realized by the simultaneous development of the mean-field limit of the equations governing the followers dynamics together with the Γ -limit of the finite dimensional sparse optimal control problems.