Sadio Mane
Liverpool forward named African Footballer of the Year
Sadio Mane’s achievements over the past 12 months have been recognised by the Confederation of African Football, who named the Liverpool forward as the 2019 African Footballer of the Year at a star-studded gala in Egypt.
Mane is the first Senegalese to win the award since another Liverpool player, El Hadji Diouf, in 2002, having twice been runner-up to his Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah, in 2017 and 2018.
Salah and the other short-listed candidate, Riyad Mahrez of Manchester
“It is not the only wrong decision I have made, but this one I could correct some years later” Jurgen Klopp on not signing Mane when at Dortmund
City and Algeria, did not attend the ceremony in Hurghada.
The award was in recognition of the 27-year-old’s impressive achievements last year. He was runner-up at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, a European champion with Liverpool, the joint-top scorer in the Premier League, and a winner of the European Super Cup and Club World Cup. Mane eclipsed previous African player of the year Salah for Liverpool as they stayed on course for their first league title for three decades.
Though a runner-up to Algeria at the
Cup of Nations, Mane’s role as an African winner of the Champions League – following in the footsteps of Didier Drogba (Chelsea 2012) and Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona 2006) – was a key factor in being voted the continent’s number one player, as was Liverpool’s popularity across the region. The award is organised by CAF and voted for by Africa’s national coaches and team captains.
Mane is one of a number of players to emerge from Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg in recent years.
Erling Haaland, signed by Borussia Dortmund in the January window, could be the best yet, while others include Mane’s Liverpool team-mate Naby Keita, Valon Berisha (Lazio), Kevin Kampl (RB Leipzig) and Munas Dabbur (who is joining Hoffenheim from Sevilla).
Liverpool also returned to Salzburg in the January transfer window, signing Japanese winger Takumi Minamino for a modest fee of £9million.
Mane, having been spotted at Metz in France, was prolific during his time in Austria. He scored 19 and 23 times in his two full seasons at Salzburg before earning a move to the Premier League with Southampton.
Ironically, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp rejected the chance to sign Mane for Borussia Dortmund in 2014. “It was simply a wrong evaluation,” Klopp now says. “I thought at that time that it was a lot of pressure on Dortmund – and this transfer, it had to be right.
“It is not the only wrong decision I have made, but this one I could correct some years later.”
Fortunately for Klopp he has been teamed up with Mane on Merseyside thanks to a club scouting and transfer policy that has secured some impressive deals in recent times. And Klopp believes the sky’s the limit for Mane.
“Sadio is in incredible shape,” he adds. “Since his first day he was an incredibly important player. I remember his goal against Arsenal, running down the line, cutting inside and then, with the next step, with the left foot in the far corner.
“That was an incredible goal and I can still remember that with all the other goals he scored. Each year he has made big steps and he is on a good way.”