Top facts You Need to Know about Undeniable Liverpool Star, Sadio Mané

In 2011,

signed his first contract with French club

. Then, he joined

in 2012 and had a glorious stint with the club, scoring 45 goals in 87 appearances across all competitions.

Mane’s performances for Red Bull Salzburg garnered attention from

and he joined the club in 2014. His transfer fee of €23 million made him the club’s most expensive signing at the time.

His performances for Southampton attracted interest from Liverpool and he joined The Reds in 2016. Mane has made 108 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 48 goals and providing 28 assists.

In his very first season, Mane was

player of the Year. This season, Mane has made 35 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 15 goals and providing three assists.

Mane has also made over 50 appearances for the Senegal national football team. He has represented Senegal in two African Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup, where he scored a goal against Japan.

Mane is quite famous for his low-key character and superstar talent and has more than 7.3m followers on his Instagram.

The followings are some lesser known facts about the stunning striker, Sadio Mané:

Mane biography

Sadio Mané, born 10 April 1992, is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a winger for

club, Liverpool, and the Senegal national team.

Mane lost his father very early at the age of 7. "I was playing football in my village grounds. My brother came over and said that our father is dead. I didn't believe it. He had a stomachache, and since there was no hospital, he was taken to the healer in another village. Things got complicated, he died there.”

This is one of the reasons why he decided to start the construction of a hospital in his village.

Mané began his professional career with Ligue 2 club Metz at age 19, but he departed after a solitary season to join Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg in 2012 for a fee of €4 million, winning a domestic double of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup in the 2013–14 season.

Later that summer, Mané transferred to English club

for a club record fee of £11.8 million, where he set a new Premier League record for the fastest hat-trick, scored in 176 seconds in a 6–1 win over Aston Villa in 2015.

Mané joined the Premier League side Liverpool in the summer of 2016 and signed a 5-year contract in a move that saw Liverpool pay £34 million to Southampton. This made him the most expensive African player of the time.

Mane’s rags to riches story

Mane was born in the town of Sedhiou in Senegal. His parents forbid him from playing football. In fact, his family did not approve of his dream of becoming a professional footballer. They wanted him to become a teacher, instead.

Growing up, Sadio lived with his uncle as his parents had a lot of children and could not afford to have another child. “My parents never had money to send me to school,” Mane recalled. “Every morning and evening, I would always go to play football with my friends.”

In 2008, when he was 16, Mane actually ran away to Dakar, to try out for a team there. He was eventually found and brought home, but he made a deal with his family that the next year, there would be no more school and only "football, football, football," in Mane's words.

His talent was so obvious that even people who didn’t know Mane pulled together to help him go to the city and follow his dream.

“My uncle was the biggest help. But not only one at the start, almost everyone in my village contributed money for me,” said Mane.

His uncle and parents sold all crops they had harvested from their farms to raise money for Sadio.

Mane usually faced disgrace because he was poor. “I will never forget this, and it’s funny now.” Mane said.

“But when I went to try out, there was an old man that looked at me like I was in the wrong place. He asked me ‘are you here for the test?’ I said I was. He asked me, ‘with those boots?’ He looked at them angrily. ‘How can you play in them?’ They were bad, really bad, torn, and old.”

He continued, ‘and with those shorts? You don’t even have proper football shorts.’ Mane told him what he came with was his best.

When he got on the pitch, he proved that the old man was wrong. Thanks to his amazing performance, the man selected him for his local team. Sadio went on to score a total of 131 goals in 90 appearances for the local team.

Mane, Southampton’s most expensive signing

Mane’s impressive performances for

attracted Southampton attention. Southampton eventually signed Sadio Mane in the summer of 2014 for a transfer fee of €23 million.

This made him the club’s most expensive signing at the time. However, this record broke when Southampton signed center-back Jannik Vestergaard from Borussia Monchengladbach. Vestergaard’s transfer fee was €25 million.

Sadio Mane made 75 appearances for Southampton, scoring 25 goals and providing 14 assists.

Hat-trick record in Premier League history

On 16 May, 2015, Southampton faced Aston Villa at St. Mary’s Stadium. Within 2 minutes and 56 seconds, Mane scored three goals, setting a new record for the fastest Premier League hat-trick.

He broke the previous record of 4 minutes and 33 seconds set by Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler against Arsenal in 1994. Southampton eventually won the match 6-1.

Mane is the most expensive African Footballer

Mane was Southampton’s most expensive signing when he joined the club in 2014. He produced some fine performances for The Saints and this attracted the Red’s attention.

Liverpool eventually signed Mane for £34 million in the summer of 2016. Mane’s transfer fee made him the most expensive African Footballer at the time, surpassing the £28 million

paid Swansea City to sign Wilfried Bony in 2015.

Mane’s transfer fee record was later broken by

,

,

, and

.

Mane is the second highest African scorer for Liverpool

Having scored 48 goals in 108 appearances, Mane is the second-highest African scorer for Liverpool. Only Mohamed Salah has scored more goals than Mane.

In Liverpool’s all-time scoring charts, Mane is 25th. Provided that Mane stays at Liverpool until at least 2023 (when his current contract expires), he will surely go higher up in that list. However, provided Mohamed Salah also plans to stay at Liverpool for a long time, Mane will have to settle for being the second-highest African scorer for Liverpool.

Mane’s scoring record against Liverpool

Before joining Liverpool, Mane played for Southampton. While at Southampton, Mane had a pretty prolific scoring record against his current club.

In two seasons, Mane played 5 matches against Liverpool and scored four goals. All of those four goals came in three matches during the 2015-16 season.

Third Senegalese footballer to play for Liverpool

Mane was the third player from Senegal to join Liverpool when the club signed him from Southampton in 2016. The other two Senegal players who played for Liverpool were 2002 World Cup stars El Hadji Diouf and Salif Diao.

However, Mane’s performances for Liverpool are much better compared to those of Diouf and Diao.

Mane’s first impression on Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp told reporters about a bad judgement call he made, as manager of Dortmund when Mane was introduced to him.

The German coach, who was managing Borussia Dortmund at the time, wanted to sign the Senegal winger from RB Salzburg.

"There was a really young guy sitting there. His baseball cap was askew, the blond streak he still has today… he looked like a rapper just starting out. I thought, 'I don’t have time for this.'"

Klopp is, at least, big enough to admit that he made a mistake, "I'd say I have a pretty good feeling for people, but I was wrong!"

Mane has scored 77 goals in 181 appearances under Klopp at Liverpool.

Mane’s house burgled twice

Mane’s house in Liverpool has been subject to burglary twice. The first instance was in November, 2017 when Liverpool were playing a Champions League match against Maribor.

The second instance happened when Liverpool were playing a Champions League match against Bayern Munich. Nobody was in his house at the time and the items stolen included car keys, watches, and mobile phones.

Mane is a devoted Muslim

Sadio Mane has always stated that he is a very religious man and that is reflected in his behavior both on and off the pitch.

Mane was asked how often did he and his family visited the church during his childhood, “They are Muslims,” he said, smiling, “so not so much church.”

“I won’t touch alcohol,” Mane told reporters, “Religion is very important to me. I respect the rules of Islam and I pray five times a day, always.”

El Hadji Diouf, Mane’s role model

When Senegal reached the 2002 World Cup quarter-finals and Africa Cup of Nations final, with a team that included stars like Aliou Cisse, Khalilou Fadiga, and El Hadji Diouf, Mane was only 10 years old.

"That was the era of the most epic Senegalese football," said Mane.

His best friend, Luc, explained that Sadio had two idols, "At the time, Sadio liked Ronaldinho, but also El Hadji Diouf, who really spurred us on to play football."

Mane had told his friend that one day he is going to be at their level.

One could argue that Mane has already surpassed his idol, at least at club level. He has certainly created a better legacy with Liverpool in comparison to his hero, El Hadji.

Mane awards

CAF Team of the Year (2015, 2016, 2018, 2019)

PFA Team of the Year (2016–17 Premier League, 2018–19 Premier League)

Premier League Player of the Month (August 2017, March 2019, November 2019)

Liverpool Fans Player of the Season Award (2016–17)

Liverpool Players' Player of the Season Award (2016–17)

FIFA FIFPro World11 4th team (2018)

Premier League Golden Boot (2018–19)

UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season (2018–19)

UEFA Team of the Year (2019)

UEFA Champions League Forward of the Season (2018–19, 2nd place)

CAF Africa Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament (2019)

African Footballer of the Year (2019)

Onze d'Or (2018–19)

IFFHS Men's World Team (2019)

Mane’s charity works

Liverpool's Senegalese striker believes that he doesn't need a luxury life to be happy and that he dedicates much of his income to charity, instead.

"Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people," Mané explained.

"I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, and food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips, and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me," Mane added.

Back home in Senegal, Mané funded the construction of a school in Bambali.

Before Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in 2018, Mane bought 300 of the club’s shirts to be sent to his birthplace. They were distributed in the Senegalese village of Bambali in the build-up to the final.

Mane net worth

Sadio Mané’s net worth is currently estimated to be $20 million with a salary of £100,000 per week before bonuses for 2019/20.

Mane signed a five year contract deal with the Premier League club Liverpool. According to reports, he earned £7.8 million a year after signing extension deal with club in 2020. His salary was reported to be £90k a week and (£4.75 million) a year

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during the years 2016-2020.

His endorsement deals include financial services giant Western Union, Indonesia Tourism, and New Balance, his boot sponsors who are also Liverpool’s kit makers.

The striker’s car collection is not quite large. Mane owns few of the best luxury cars, including Audi, BMW, Range Rover, Mercedes, and Sports cars.

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