Senegal confident of taking Sadio Mané’s absence in their stride at World Cup
It was the news nobody in Bambali or the rest of Senegal had wanted to hear. A statement from Bayern Munich’s medical team on Thursday, confirming Sadio Mané would play no part in the World Cup after a tendon had been reattached to the head of his right fibula during an operation in Austria, was the realisation of their worst fears.
The absence of the forward who became only the second African player to finish in the top three at the Ballon d’Or last month has been a bitter pill to swallow for a football-crazy nation that had been daring to dream. The coach, Aliou Cissé, and his players must now face the Netherlands in their opening match on Monday and the remainder of the tournament in Qatar without him.
Yet with the team packed full of experience of Europe’s top five leagues and their pedigree as reigning African champions, perhaps all is not lost. Much of Senegal’s recent success has been down to a pragmatic approach to tournament football under Cissé, and the onus will be on Ismaïla Sarr, who was included in the Africa Cup of Nations squad against Watford’s wishes in January and ended up recovering from injury to play a key role in their maiden continental triumph, and others such as the forward Boulaye Dia to provide a cutting edge.
“We have players who can take Sadio Mané’s place — that is not the question,” says the Senegalese journalist Yoro Mangana from the French radio station RF1. “The question is if they will be able to cope with the pressure on their shoulders. When Mané is on the pitch he takes all the pressure off the rest of the team, so they will have to learn how to deal with that.”
Sheffield United’s exciting young forward Iliman Ndiaye – who spent three seasons at the National League side Boreham Wood and received his first international call-up in June – is also among those hoping to fill the void, along with the uncapped forward Nicolas Jackson of Villarreal. The 22-yearold was born in the Gambia and holds dual citizenship but made his name with Casa Sports — Senegal’s reigning champions and proud representatives of the Casamance region where Mané and Cissé were born.
The region, which is separated from the north of the country by the Gambia, has just emerged from the latest phase of a separatist war that began in 1982 after a peace deal signed at the end of August between the Senegalese government and the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance. Mané’s influence on his home region of Sédhiou – three hours from the regional capital Ziguinchor – is well known, with the former Liverpool forward having famously paid for the construction of a hospital, school, petrol station and football academy in his home village of Bambali.
At the Ballon d’Or ceremony Mané’s social contribution was recognised with the inaugural Socrates award on a night when his second place in the main prize behind Karim Benzema means George Weah remains Africa’s only winner. “Sadio is a poor man from a place that is very, very far from Dakar,” says his uncle Ibrahima Touré. “From a small village like this he has risen to become the second best player in the world — it’s incredible. But I have to admit Karim Benzema deserved to win after the way he played for Real Madrid.”
Speaking before Mané’s injury, Touré — who helped to raise his nephew after Mané’s father died when Sadio was a child — was optimistic that Senegal could make a real impression in Qatar.
“We have a very strong team,” says Touré, the mayor of Bambali and the surrounding area. “They all play for big clubs in strong European leagues like Germany, France, Spain and England so why can’t we win the World Cup? The last few tournaments have given them all great experiences and I know they will go to Qatar with a chance of making history. Inshallah, we can win again. When that happens, there will be a big party in Bambali.”
More than 300 people were at Mané’s house to witness their triumph in the penalty shootout over Egypt in February’s Africa Cup of Nations final, although expectations were severely tempered when news filtered through of the injury he sustained in Bayern’s 6-1 against Werder Bremen on 9 November. But Cissé, driven by the memory of becoming the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated because of an inferior disciplinary record four years ago, could give them reason to believe again.
Cissé grew up in Ziguinchor before moving to Paris with his family at the age of nine, going on to represent Paris Saint-Germain, Birmingham and Leicester and captaining the Teranga
Lions in their historic run to the 2002 quarter-finals under Bruno Metsu. Whereas all but two of that squad were born in Senegal, this time there are nine players born in France and one each from Germany and Switzerland.
According to Mangana, making Chelsea’s Kalidou Koulibaly – who played for France youth teams before switching to Senegal in 2015 – captain instead of the previous incumbent Cheikou Kouyaté was an example Cissé’s attempts to bring his squad together.
“He knows the players very well and he has something that the other coaches don’t,” he says. “He was born in Senegal and he knows their mentality. But he came to France as a young boy so he knows the mentality of those guys, too. The two cultures of Aliou Cissé help him to drive this team and relate to the players. “He is very smart. Before he was in charge we had one squad that was divided into two between players who were born in Senegal and those who were born in France. Now we have one group, one team and one leader.”