The Bayern Munich striker received the award last Thursday, after it was not awarded for two years in a row due to the corona pandemic. The African Football Federation therefore wanted to give the award to someone who has performed well not only in the past year, but since 2019. ‘I thank the Senegalese people,’ said Mané when receiving the trophy in Rabat, Morocco, ‘and dedicate this trophy to the youth of my country’.
Twenty years ago, 30-year-old Mané himself belongs to that youth. He grew up in the remote fishing village of Bambaly, located about 60 kilometers east of the Senegalese town of Ziguinchor. There, in the wooded area on the banks of the Casamance River, Sadio Mané plays football for the first time with other boys from his village. “I was hungry and had to work in the field,” Mané told the Ghanaian website in 2019. Nsemwoha. ‘I went through difficult times, I played football barefoot.’
At a young age, Mané is noticed for his football talent, recalls Ismaila Biaye, the headmaster of Mané’s former high school. However, he is still a shy boy. ‘You could have missed him in the village’, says Biaye in 2018 to a journalist from the Chinese TV channel CTGN. “If I hadn’t taught him, I wouldn’t have noticed him. He’s such a quiet boy who passes you without noticing.’
Secretly playing football
Yet Mané’s father, the local imam, initially does not care about his son’s passion. Mané therefore first secretly plays in a neighboring village, before finally leaving for the Senegalese capital Dakar in the hope of being discovered. When that fails and Mané returns to his parents, he makes a pact with his mother: as long as he remains a devout Muslim and continues his studies, he can continue to play football.
The second time Mané leaves the parental home, it is with the consent of his parents. At a soccer tournament in M’Bour, a scout sees the then 15-year-old Mané play, and insists the boy take some soccer tests in Dakar. After fifteen minutes, Jules Boucher, recruiter of the Senegalese club Génération Foot, has seen enough. “I said to my colleague: if this boy gets a good training, he will be a great player,” Boucher recalled in a statement. interview with the French TV channel France24.
His time at Génération Foot proves to be very important to Sadio Mané. Through the club’s network, he will play for the French Metz in 2011. From the start, Mané makes an indelible impression there. But Metz is relegated and forced to sell players. Mane is bought by Red Bull Salzburg, where he becomes top scorer in the 2013-2014 season. Then the Senegalese makes a transfer to the English Premier League, where he plays for Southampton.
He has scored 21 goals in 67 appearances for the southern English club, something that has attracted the attention of Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp. In 2016, he bought Mane for €36 million, which will ultimately lead to a Champions League victory in 2019 and the coveted Premier League title the following year. Mané remains humble under his success – Eurosport calls him a “silent, smiling assassin” who “talks so softly it’s hard to hear him.” Mané is also vital for the national team: in February 2022, Senegal will beat Egypt in the battle for the Africa Cup of Nations, after Mané scores the decisive penalty.
Charity
The Senegalese may now be among the best in the world, but his compatriots mainly see his charity. “Why would I want ten Ferraris, twenty diamond watches, or two planes?” Mané wondered in the aforementioned interview with Nsemwoha. ‘What will this stuff do for me or the world? I don’t need to show luxury cars, luxury houses, travel or airplanes. I prefer that my people get a little bit of what life has given me.’
Mané is back in Bambaly at the end of June. Movies of ‘Mané in de modder’ are going over the internet: the images show how the top player plays a match on a muddy field. Earlier Mané asked in a interview with the British The Daily Telegraph whether they would not publish his statements about the school built by him in his native village, because he ‘doesn’t do it for publicity’. Now British tabloids are more than happy to publish about the ‘hero’ and his ‘dazzling generosity‘. According to The Mirror In addition to the school, Mané has also financed a stadium, a hospital, a post office and a gas station, worth more than 880 thousand euros.
Mané now plays for Bayern Munich, which has paid 32 million euros for the Senegalese, with bonuses rising to 40 million euros. Several players are bewildered by the switch. Liverpool allegedly begged Mane to stay. Coach Jurgen Kloppa describes Mane on his departure as one of the best players Liverpool has ever known. “He is leaving at a time when he is one of the best players in world football,” said Knopp. “We should not dwell on what we are losing now, but celebrate what we had. The goals he scored, the trophies he won; Mane is a legend, sure, but also a modern day Liverpool icon.”
3x Sadio Mane
– Dutch people who are not yet familiar with Mané’s game can get acquainted with the opening game of the upcoming World Cup in Qatar: the duel between the Netherlands and Senegal is then the opening game of the tournament. The match will be played at the Al Thumama Stadium on November 21.
In his time at Southampton, Mané made history: on May 16, 2015, in a match against Aston Villa, he scored three goals in 2 minutes and 56 seconds. Mane thus scored the fastest ‘hat-trick’ in the Premier League ever.
– With his departure to Bayern Munich, Sadio Mane is currently the highest paid African player. According to the British The Mirror he gets almost 294 thousand euros per week credited to his account. With a weekly wage of more than 258 thousand euros, Mo Salah is in second place among African high earners in football.