Sadio Mané’s unusually low level of self-promotion is indicative of his maturation as a football player. As a teen, he would slip out of the academy before dawn and run for an hour without Madame Brech’s knowledge. The Red Bull Salzburg weights and mat in his studio apartment meant that he could only watch so much football with a pal on TV before having to jump up and frantically pump iron. Where did he go on his trip to Senegal? Passport inspection. Verify bags. Yes, I have a personal trainer. The new Mané is a wise worker. At Metz, he averaged once every two weeks. He is a trained professional who takes his rest between Liverpool’s three-day matches seriously.
He has an honest message for the typical kid who values their bedtime. “That’s a real mistake,” Mané says. Young people should prioritize their time and work. I owe my success to my own diligence.
Here’s why a sweet, mild-mannered, unassuming, and lovable individual has gotten into so many scrapes. Metz senior colleague Pierre Bouby said of Mané, “He was a well-raised boy, endearing, but you didn’t stand in his way because he didn’t have the time.” He clearly wasn’t fooling around. His moral fiber is sturdy, too. Sadio Mané’s youth coach at Metz and nursery club coach in Senegal, Olivier Perrin, described him as having “an internal power which comes from within himself, but also from his past and the path he has been on.”
Mané has funded the construction of a brand new school, hospital, and mosque in Bambali. The major problem is that too many kids are wearing one of his 300 Liverpool jerseys to play football in the mornings and so are late to school.
The key to success in Senegal, according to Perrin, is the family. Europe just doesn’t get how much they need your help. And as Mané put it, “You may say, ‘I don’t know where I’m going,’ but you can’t say, ‘I don’t know where I’ve come from.’” Never forget your parents and other caretakers.
Bambali is located on a long, meandering loop of the Casamance River in southwestern Senegal. Mané calls this home. Banners calling him “the pride of the nation” line its streets. Their field is “uneven, crisscrossed by 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren and cows and gets requisitioned during circumcision time,” according to Moussa Ndione, a schoolteacher and Mané’s first club coach at Mansacounda de Bambali. Mané may not have to put up with it for much longer now that he has funded the construction of a brand new school, hospital, and mosque in Bambali (not to mention the accompanying thatched and tin roofs). Sadio Mané gave over 300 Liverpool jerseys, but now youngsters are running late because they want to wear them so they can look like him. Even if the person himself gave a sermon, it wouldn’t work.
The mosque features a photograph of Mané’s imam father, who died when Sadio was 11. He was raised by his mom, uncle, and grandma. He built a house big enough for his whole family of 45.
Aunt Tiana Cissé is fuming that “people” believe the family tried to prevent Mané from playing football, despite his own denials. Sadio says, “I thank my mum every day” because she let him and his friend come home from school early so they could play football instead of study. The harvest was getting late, and Mané’s uncle Ibrahim Touré was getting angry with him: “He exclaimed, ‘You’re wearing me out, Uncle. The idea that I’ll become a professional footballer and save you from toiling in the fields is just ridiculous. To what end will you succeed? Not affluent. I didn’t have faith in his motivation because he didn’t have the funds to send me to training.
Mané fled to Dakar, Senegal’s capital, aged nearly 16 to become a football star. He was so typical of a teenager that the night before he hid his sports bag in the expansive grass outside his house, telling no one but his best friend about it. After his misadventure was uncovered and halted, he was given the opportunity to pursue his interest in exchange for completing his education.
In 2009, he competed in regional championships in Mbour, 80 kilometers outside of Dakar, and was among hundreds of young people who were called to a trial at a police college. According to Mané, “an old man” was taken aback when he arrived up wearing his mended boots and bizarre shorts. Abdou Diatta, a veteran school scout for Génération Foot, says that he was first skeptical of Mané because of the player’s peculiar reticence. But after seeing the boy play, he was convinced. Though approved by the academy and on track to become an international footballer, Mané returned home to labor in the rice and peanut fields every summer.
Former Senegalese midfielder and Génération Foot coach Jules Boucher said of him, “I saw in him the qualities of a top-level player – speed, dribbling, an ability to beat defenses, link-up play.” He gave Mané some time to develop under his wing, and the academy—which had been established nine years prior by former professional Mady Touré “with a sheet of paper, a table, two balls, and some ideas”—knew they had a diamond in the rough.
Players from the Génération Foot movement are eager to join FC Metz. Since 2003, the two clubs have worked together. Mané went on a school trip to Metz in late 2009, which is in southeastern France and close to the borders of Germany and Luxembourg. The 18-year-old had settled down in the ancient metropolis for good by the beginning of 2010.
First, Mané had to deal with the shock of a northern European winter after covering up an illness to protect his relocation. Because “he didn’t say anything,” it took Perrin two and a half months to realize, he said. He got a severe cut on his groin. The situation got better following the surgery.
David Fleurival, a midfielder for Metz, got suspended one Saturday in the fall of 2011 and had to play for the reserve team. Afterward, he reported the superstar’s information to coach Dominique Bijotat, who invited him to work out with the first team.
“Perrin had told us that a phenomenon was coming to Metz, but we had no idea that he was that good,” former Metz defender Gaetan Bussmann said to FourFourTwo. I remember Sadio as perpetually cheerful, as if he were under no stress whatsoever. He has maintained his style of play since his arrival in France. He’s physically stronger and can play at a high level for 90 minutes straight. The major differentiator is his explosiveness on the field, especially in one-on-one situations.
It was so chilly and gloomy in November of 2011 that I remember one reserve match against Jura Sud. A game was very almost postponed. Mané came on from the bench. As it was dark, we just said, “Give the ball to Sadio,” hoping he could outmaneuver the defense and score. Despite his defeat, he caused a lot of damage. We won 2-1.”
Mané’s first game in Ligue 2 was an odd turning point in his career. On January 14, 2012, he made an appearance for Metz against Bastia with 15 minutes remaining at the Stade Saint-Symphorien, but Bastia scored in stoppage time. The youngster got better after that, while Metz got worse. In a 5-2 loss to Guingamp in May, Mané scored his first goal for Metz before the club was demoted to the Championnat National for the first time in its history.
The young Mané, then 20, would have been looking out the window of the Metz squad bus in late August of 2012. Imagine telling him that his next trip to France would be to lift the Champions League. As Sadio boarded the bus for the four-and-a-half-hour trip to Rouen for the match against Quevilly, he was told to get out. He Googled Salzburg and realized his plane was headed in the opposite direction.
This is Mané’s first experience as a marketable asset. Gerard Houllier, his new coach, was so impressed by his performance with Senegal in the Olympic quarterfinals in 2012 that he notified his new employer, Red Bull. With only 19 Ligue 2 appearances to his name, Metz felt a €2.5 million price tag would deter potential buyers. They made a mistake. Ralf Rangnick, technical director for Red Bull Salzburg, was interested by Mané’s performance in August versus Tours. After receiving many bids of €2.5m, Metz decided to increase their asking price to €4m. Salzburg sucked it up and raised the money, but financially strapped Metz gave in and accepted its fate.
“We saw a great deal of potential in Sadio,” says Salzburg’s sports director Christoph Freund, who has also helped launch Naby Keita, Takumi Minamino, and Erling Braut Haaland. It was easy to see that he was constantly on the move and eager to score. He was extremely clear about wanting to move forward when we met him.
We found it challenging. Both the language and the culture were unique. You can see a player’s potential when you sign them, but you can’t guarantee they’ll develop in the way you expect them to. It’s amazing to see how far Sadio has come since he first arrived.
It appears that young Mané was forced into a Merseyside tractor beam by Houllier’s intervention. Mané had to swiftly adapt to Salzburg’s new manager Roger Schmidt, who sought to model the team’s style of play after that of Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund.
“Sadio worked a lot tactically, mainly in learning gegenpressing to recover the ball as soon as possible after we lost possession,” Salzburg center back Andre Ramalho told FFT. Schmidt remarked that Mané’s tactical awareness and benevolence helped him change.
According to Ramalho, “he was such a great person who had an unbelievable heart.” Because Brazilians and Africans normally get along, he and I were an additional example of why it’s great to be alive. Some of the club’s members helped him get started, and they’ve been in touch ever since.
Mustapha Mesloub, the ‘integration manager’ in Salzburg, was “like my real family” to Mané. While Mané’s wife did the cooking and cleaning, Mesloub interpreted and ate with him. The forward also had the phrase “I will never forget that passage of my life.”
Sadio Mane and Liverpool’s 310th Problem
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“Sadio’s first year at the club was also the first year for our new director, Ralf Rangnick, and coach, Roger Schmidt,” Ramalho explains. We were knocked out of the cup in the semi-finals, finished second in the league, and lost in the Champions League qualification. The following year, everything came together, and everyone, including Mané, made great strides.
Even though Salzburg breezed through the group stage of the Europa League in 2013–14, a friendly versus Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola in January 2014 was the first sellout at the Red Bull Arena since Euro 2008. The 3-0 victory was described as a “unforgettable match” by Ramalho.
We should have been penalized for that!”Defense attorney chuckles. Mané was outstanding in that match. Mané scored after 13 minutes, earned the penalty that led to the second goal, and created the third. Guardiola says he had “a good lesson” on his 43rd 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day.
Salzburg defeated Ajax 6-1 on aggregate in the Europa League’s first knockout stage, with Kevin Kampl and Mané scoring double goals in both games. Klopp’s failure to sign Mané when he was 22 was called “one of my biggest mistakes” by the player’s agent, according to Mané’s statements. The two players didn’t meet until 2014.
Mané was supposed to be the leader of Salzburg’s Champions League campaign in 2014–15, but Rangnick was met with Mané’s Mr. Hyde. Mané refused to participate in training and even skipped the second leg of Salzburg’s Champions League play-off against Malmo, resulting in a 3-0 loss and a 4–2 aggregate loss. Due to the degrading nature of the fight, Red Bull chose to sell him to Spartak Moscow for maximum value. He really want to be a part of Dortmund. As the two sides dug in, Southampton seemed like the only remaining option.
“I wouldn’t say that he gave off that vibe,” says Adam Leitch, formerly the head sports reporter for the Southern Daily Echo. Many players were using Southampton as a stepping stone because the club had sold many successful players, most notably to Liverpool. There were a lot of players that gave their all for Southampton, but ultimately it was all about them.
At Salzburg, I found true football,” Mané added. I took charge of things in Southampton. After that, I was ready to join a large European club.”
Leitch can’t think of any instances of organization among the Senegalese. He tells FFT that “he had a chaos factor” (both to the other team and to his own team). When I hear that Virgil van Dijk has improved considerably at Anfield, it makes me laugh because he was already so good at Southampton. Liverpool drafted Mané because of his potential, not his existing abilities. There were games where Sadio was unstoppable, and then there were games where you had to ask, “What the heck is going on?”At Southampton, “he had some dreadful howlers in front of goal, either misses or foolish decisions.”
While playing for Southampton in the Premier League, Mané struggled in his debut year, failing to score or assist in 46 of his 67 appearances. He played Aston Villa at St. Mary’s on May 16, 2015, and bared everything. Three goals in 2 minutes and 56 seconds is the record for the Premier League. Mané called the success a “trigger,” saying he convinced himself he no longer had the right to make mistakes. I convinced myself that I had entered a new dimension in which anything was conceivable.
Mané broadened his tactical horizons. After dominating Wayne Rooney in a 3-2 victory for Manchester United at St. Mary’s in September 2015, he was named the game’s man of the match. In October, he impressed Saints manager Ronald Koeman with a goal and solid positioning in the team’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Koeman and Mané guided the Saints to a 7th and 6th place finish in the league.
The latter encountered the wrath of his superior. Mané missed a team meeting in January 2016 and was therefore benched for the 1-0 loss to Norwich. Leitch claims a more innocent motive. “Perhaps Mané wasn’t always the most prepared of characters,” he admits, “but I later heard that he’d simply gotten lost in the hotel, trying to find the right room.” Nonetheless, Koeman didn’t approve and strongly suggested that he leave. He steadfastly forbade anyone from imagining they could play by a different set of guidelines.
Mané was becoming increasingly valuable, and Klopp had not forgotten about him.
Liverpool Champions League Sadio Mane
Mané claims he was offered a contract by Manchester United before he signed with Liverpool in the summer of 2016, but he ultimately decided to join the Reds instead. Mané started well for a £34m outlay, but Philippe Coutinho’s January 2018 move to Barcelona altered everything. Klopp claimed he had to rotate his team after a poor performance in the Merseyside derby last month and sought out private chats with Mané to improve his confidence. In addition, Coutinho was about to leave and didn’t feel like telling me. He said he had faith in me and that he knew I would play till I was exhausted. However, I let him know that I was interested in taking part because Mohamed Salah and I were both contending for the African Ballon d’Or.
Coutinho’s departure at Liverpool had the same effect as Mané’s quickfire hat-trick at Southampton. Mané made place for Salah by moving to the opposite flank. To further utilize his No. 10 s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁s, Andrew Robertson should move within the attacking half of the field. As of January, Mané has been recognized as the best player in Africa.
Senegal colleague Cheikhou Kouyate told FFT, “Before, he was only Mané the showman, trying to create the best assists.” Now he understands that his primary responsibility is to score. He’s complete now that he can score and assist on goals. He leads too. Sadio used to be reserved and quiet, but these days he speaks his mind on the field. He’s a fighter on the field and a stud away from it.
In the last 15 minutes of games last season, Mané had just under 25% of his shots and goals. He was less prolific than in 2017–18, but more clinical since he shot from more advantageous angles.
Kouyate: “It makes you wonder why a player like him hasn’t won a major individual trophy yet, like Lionel Messi or Virgil van Dijk.” I thought Sadio beat them both last year. Lacking fairness. He was the Premier League’s joint-leading scorer without the aid of penalty kicks. He led Senegal to a runner-up place in the Africa Cup of Nations and a Champions League title. Salah was named 2018 African Player of the Year by former Senegal coach Amara Traore, who also praised Mané for his play. “He was selfish, and Sadio was altruistic,” Traore said.
That goal he scored against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League? He’d have it by now. His commitment has been met. The onus is now on him to keep it up and not let his generosity triumph.
Mané had a 22-goal and 1-assist season in the Premier League last year. Halfway through the season, he had scored 13 goals and seven assists in both the United States and Europe, suggesting that egotism and altruism had found a middle ground.
However, the timing of Gerard Houllier’s claim that he proposed Mané to Liverpool while he was at Metz raises eyebrows. To “burn through phases” or “rush” is what “brûler les étapes” means in French. Klopp knows the value of being patient. Sadio Mané’s success shows that it takes time for hard work to pay off.
