Sadio Mane

Sadio Mane is a Senegalese footballer who plays as a forward for Bayern Munich.

The forward started his career at French club Metz before the winger completed a switch to Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg in 2012.

Mane earned a move to Southampton in 2014 after he helped Red Bull Salzburg to win the Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup.

The Senegal international spent two seasons on the south coast and scored 21 goals in 67 games in the Premier League for the Saints.

The forward moved to Liverpool FC in a £34m deal from Southampton in the 2016 summer transfer window as Jurgen Klopp finally landed the attacking midfielder following much speculation.

He left Liverpool FC to sign for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022.

Mane has been a regular fixture in the Senegal national team since making his debut in 2012.

Early Life

Sadio was born in Sedhiou, Senegal in 1992.

He started his fledgling career with a Senegalese academy team, Academie Generation Foot.

Mane moved to French club Metz at the tender age of 19 in 2011.

Metz

Sadio made his professional debut in European football in January 2012. The attacker was a second-half substitute in a 1-0 loss to Bastia in Ligue 2.

Mane started 12 of his 19 games in Ligue 2 in the 2012-13 season. The winger scored his only goal in a 5-2 loss to Guingamp at the Stade Saint-Symphorien on 4 May.

The Senegal forward was unable to help Metz avoid relegation and it wasn’t long before Mane was snapped up from the Championnat National at the start of the 2013-14 campaign.

Red Bull Salzburg

Mane completed a €4m move to Red Bull Salzburg from Metz in August 2012. It was the biggest transfer fee that the French club had ever received for a player.

He finished the 2012-13 season with 19 goals in 29 games in all competitions to make a brilliant start to his Red Bull Salzburg career.

Mane scored his first hat-trick in the Austrian Bundesliga in a comfortable win at Grodig.

The young starlet scored his third treble for the Austrian club in a resounding 7–0 at Horn in the Austrian Cup semi-finals.

Sadio scored 13 goals in 30 games in the Austrian Bundesliga to help Red Bull Salzburg win the top-flight crown and the Austrian Cup.

Mane ended his time at Red Bull Salzburg in controversial fashion as he managed to force through a transfer. He refused to turn up for training at the start of the 2014-15 season despite Red Bull’s qualification for the Champions League being in the balance.

Southampton

Mane completed an £11.8m move to Premier League club Southampton from Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg in the 2014 summer transfer window. Sadio signed a four-year contract with the Saints on 1 September 2014.

He scored the winning penalty in Southampton’s 2-1 win against Arsenal in the League Cup to open his account with the Premier League club.

Mane thought he had netted his first Premier League goal in Southampton’s 8-0 demolition of Sunderland, although the strike later went down as a Patrick van Aanholt own-goal.

Sadio finally got his first Premier League goal in a 1-0 victory over Stoke City in October 2014.

He scored in successive Premier League games for the first time with efforts against Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Chelsea FC.

The winger continued his fine goal-scoring form with the winner in 1-0 victories over Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace.

There were rumblings of trouble between Mane and Southampton when he was fined for turning up late at St Mary’s for a 2-0 loss to Liverpool FC.

However, Sadio finished the season in sensational style with the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history. Mane scored a treble in 2 minutes and 56 seconds in Southampton’s 6-1 win against Aston Villa in May 2015.

The forward finished the season with 10 goals and three assists in 30 Premier League games at the south coast club.

Mane continued his rich vein of form in a Southampton shirt at the start of the 2015-16 season. He scored twice in a 3-0 win over Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa League qualifying round.

His scored vital goals on the road at Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC to start to capture the attention of some top Premier League clubs.

Ironically, Mane scored four times in three meetings against his future employers Liverpool during the 2015-16 season.

Mane ended the campaign with five goals in his last five games, including a hat-trick against Manchester City in the Premier League.

Sadio scored 11 goals and made six assists in 37 appearances in the Premier League during his last season at St Mary’s.

Liverpool FC

Mane completed a £34m move to Liverpool FC from Southampton on 28 June 2016. Sadio became the most-expensive African footballer in history with his big-money switch to Anfield from Southampton.

He opened his Liverpool account in spectacular fashion with an incredible wonder-goal in a 4-3 win against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in their opening Premier League game of the 2016-17 season.

Sadio scored for the second time in a 4-1 win against Leicester City at Anfield to make a blistering stat to his Reds career,

Mane netted twice in one of Liverpool FC’s most-impressive performances of the 2016-17 season in an emphatic 6-1 win against Watford.

The Liverpool FC midfielder secured his own little slice of Reds history when he scored the winner in the 227th Merseyside derby. The forward netted in added time to secure a 1-0 victory at Everton.

Mane netted in a 2-2 draw at Sunderland before he departed for the 2017 African Cup of Nations.

He returned to the Liverpool FC starting line-up for the visit of Tottenham Hotspur on 11 February 2017. Mane scored both of the home side’s goals in a 2-0 win against their top-four rivals at Anfield.

Sadio’s season was cut short after he suffered a serious knee problem in Liverpool FC’s 3-1 win against Everton in the derby at Anfield in March. He got on the score-sheet before he was replaced in the 56th minute.

Mane scored 13 goals and made five assists in 31 games to earn a place in the PFA Premier League team of the year.

He was also awarded Liverpool FC’s player of the season award following his outstanding debut campaign at Anfield.

Sadio made a brilliant start to the 2017-18 Premier League season with goals against Watford, Crystal Palace and Arsenal in their opening three top-flight fixtures.

Mane was sent off in controversial circumstances for a high tackle on Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson before Liverpool went on to lose 5-0 at The Etihad.

He scored three goals in the Champions League group stage to help Jurgen Klopp’s side secure a place in the last 16 with efforts against Spartak Moscow and Sevilla.

Mane netted his first Premier League goal since August in a 3-0 win at Stoke City in November.

He played a key role in their run to the Champions League final with a hat-trick in a 5-0 win at FC Porto before goals against Manchester City and AS Roma.

Sadio netted what proved to be a consolation goal in a 3-1 loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

Mane netted 20 times and made eight assists in his second season at Liverpool FC.

Mane played a key part in helping Liverpool FC to win the Champions League in 2018-19 and Premier League in 2019-20 under Jurgen Klopp.

Bayern Munich

Mane left Liverpool FC to sign for Bayern Munich in a £35m deal. The Senegal international signed an initial three-year contract with the Bundesliga club.

International Career

Mane made his senior debut for the Senegal national team in 2012. He was part of the Senegal team that competed at the London 2012 Olympics.

Liverpool FC manager Klopp has since revealed that he first became an admirer of Mane at the Olympic Games.

The forward started each group stage fixture and helped Senegal to qualify for the knockout round behind Great Britain.

Senegal crashed out of the tournament following a 4-2 extra-time loss to eventual gold medallists Mexico.

Mane beat the odds to feature at the 2015 African Cup of Nations despite initially being ruled out of the tournament due to a calf problem. Senegal didn’t manage to get past the group stage.

Sadio featured at the 2017 African Cup of Nations following a brilliant start to his Liverpool career.

Mane scored in victories over Tunisia and Zimbabwe to reach the quarter-finals of the major tournament. However, he missed a penalty kick in a last-eight loss to Cameroon in the African Cup of Nations.

Personal Life

Mane is a practising Muslim and is occasionally is seen making du’a before the start of games.

His father, who died when he was seven years old, was an imam – and his family gather every year on the anniversary of his death to recite the Qur’an.

Sadio Mane – Did You Know?

• Mane was the third Senegal international to represent Liverpool. Salif Diao and El Hadji Diouf moved to Liverpool in 2002.

• Sadio scored the fastest Premier League hat-trick in history in 2015. His brisk treble beat the record previously held by Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler, who scored three times in four minutes, 33 seconds.

• He was part of the Senegal team that earned a 1-1 draw against Great Britain at Old Trafford in the group stages at the London 2012 Olympics.

• Mane followed in the footsteps of former Liverpool defender Rigobert Song and other Premier League legends such as Louis Saha, Papiss Cisse, Emmanuel Adebayor and Robert Pires when he started his career at Metz.

• Liverpool FC’s record appearance holder Ian Callaghan was born on April 10, just like the Senegal international.