Liverpool legend Sadio Mane, who turns 33 today, proved to be one of Jurgen Klopp’s best buys – at the second time of asking
Sadio Mane’s move away from Liverpool hasn’t panned out quite as he would’ve liked. Having won everything there was to win on Merseyside, the Reds legend called time on his Anfield career in the summer of 2022 when he made a £35m switch to Bayern Munich.
.But while Mane would win the Bundesliga title, his one and only campaign in Germany ultimately proved to be disappointing.
The Senegalese made 38 appearances for Bayern, scoring 12 goals, but not helped by injury, he made just 27 starts in all competitions and failed to find his best form. He also had a dressing room altercation with team-mate Leroy Sane.
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It came as no surprise then when Mane, who turns 33 today, followed the influx of high-profile moving to Saudi Arabia, joining Al Nassr in August 2023.
In contrast to Bayern supporters, Kopites waved off the forward with a heavy heart, having seen him score 120 goals during his six seasons at Liverpool. During that time he helped fire the club back into the Champions League before helping the Reds win six trophies and be crowned champions of England, Europe and the world.
With Roberto Firmino already on their books, Mane was the second part of Liverpool’s attacking puzzle when signed from Southampton in the summer of 2016. With Mohamed Salah joining the following year, Jurgen Klopp put together the best frontline in Europe that conquered all before them.
Mane was actually Klopp’s first marquee signing as Reds boss – and the German’s desire to sign him from the Saints stemmed from a previous transfer misfire.
Having tracked Mane’s progress since an impressive showing in the 2012 London Olympics, Klopp has first considered signing Mane when Borussia Dortmund manager and even held talks with the then RB Salzburg player over a possible move to the Westfalenstadion in 2014.
However, Klopp decided Mane wasn’t for him before swiftly realising he had made a dreadful error.
“I made a mistake,” said Klopp. “We met each other, we talked but by the end I didn’t feel it. I like the player, it was more of a feeling.
“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’. I’d say I have a pretty good feeling for people, but was I wrong!
“At Dortmund we could only get one player for this position, not two or three, so it needed to be exactly the right fit in this moment. About three months later I would have punched myself, so I already knew that the next chance I have, I would take it.
“It was a pretty simple decision with Sadio. When the club came this summer and Michael Edwards said we have an opportunity, there were no talks necessary any more. It was a case of ‘let’s do it’.
“Since I came here I have spoken to the staff a lot about him and have always felt he could be a very good signing for us. He would have been more expensive if we had taken him to Dortmund and then he had been sold to Liverpool, so all good for Liverpool. The more I think about it, that was my first Liverpool decision. Nice!”
Dortmund’s loss was the Reds’ gain as Klopp made sure he got his man in 2016, even stealing him from under the noses of Manchester United in the process.
“I have to say I was really close to going to Manchester United,” Mane admitted in an interview with the Telegraph when recalling his decision to join Liverpool. “I had the contract there. I had it all agreed. It was all ready.
“I still remember the first time I got the call from Klopp. I was watching TV. It was an action movie – because I love movies – and he said, ‘Sadio, listen, I want to explain to you what happened at Dortmund’.
“That was when he thought of signing me for Dortmund and for some reason it didn’t work out. He tried to explain and I said, ‘it’s okay, it happened’. I forgave him. Then he said, ‘now I want you at Liverpool’. And I said, ‘okay, Dortmund is behind us, let’s focus on the future’.”
Eight years on from his failed move to Dortmund, Mane belatedly got a transfer to the Bundesliga, but only after enjoying his peak years at Liverpool under Klopp.
A version of this article was first published in June 2022.