Once an undisciplined and arbitrary player, Sadio Mane has now become a professional model of Africa, when actively restraining his wild personality, living more moderation to focus on giving as long as possible. for Liverpool.

He still feels sorry that the days of his youth did not fit into the framework.

“All good things come only when you work hard”

The career of football player Sadio Mane is not actually going on a straight line, but through many turns and obstacles. As a young Metz player, Mane was often seen by Madame Brech, the head of the academy, when sneaking out for an hour before dawn.

In Austria, he often lounging around watching TV with his friends. He is willing to spend time going back to his hometown Senegal for long holidays, without thinking too much.

The years in Salzburg helped Mane grow. Photo: Getty .

At Metz, Mane only played once a week. From the day he moved to Liverpool, the Senegalese player was forced to be more careful, because the matches took place regularly every 3 days. He needs the fastest recovery to meet the professional requirements.

So Mane, the player we know today, regrets the waste of time of his former self. “That’s the real mistake. When you’re young, you should have made the most of it by working hard. I found that out when I got to this stage of my career. All good things come only when you work hard. just,” said Mane.

Mane, who is described as smiling, reserved, humble and lovable, is sometimes too busy. “He was kind, well-liked, but sometimes he didn’t have time for friends,” recalls Pierre Bouby, Mane’s teammate at Metz. And Olivier Perrin, Mane’s coach at Metz youth team, said he “possess the mental strength that comes from within, after all that he has been through”.

“For Senegalese, all success comes down to family,” says Perrin. “You have to do everything for them, and that’s far from Europeans. That’s the motivation we don’t have.” Mane himself once asserted: “You can say ‘I don’t know where I’m going. But you can’t say, I don’t know where I’m from. You must always think of the people who carried you’”.

Heroes in Senegal

The village of Bambali sits on one of the wide, winding bends of the Casamance River in southwestern Senegal. For Mane, this is home. The streets are covered with posters calling Mane “national pride”.

Shortly after Moussa Ndione, teacher and coach of Mane’s first club, Mansacounda de Bambali, complained that their pitch was “craggy and cramped with kids and their cows”, Mane funded to build a new school, hospital and mosque in his homeland, with metal roofs.

The only problem now is that the kids are constantly late to school, because they all want to be the new Sadio Mane, engrossed in football, wearing one of the 300 Liverpool jerseys he sponsored. Even if Mane gave a talk here, advising the kids to study first, this wouldn’t change.

Every kid in Senegal dreams of one day becoming Sadio Mane. Photo: Getty .

The church Mane built has a portrait of his father, a priest (a very high profile in Islam) who died when Mane was 11 years old. He grew up with his mother, uncle and grandmother, in a large family of 45 who now live together in the mansion he built for them.

His aunt, Tiana Cisse, was outraged when rumors spread that her family tried to stop Mane from playing football, but ignored the stark truth: Mane had said so herself. He once recounted the story of having to drag a friend home with him to avoid being beaten, because he left to play football instead of going to school.

His uncle, Ibrahim Toure, once shouted at Mane because he refused to help his family with the harvest: “He said: ‘I’m tired. I’m going to be a national player and won’t have to work in the fields anymore. hey.

At the age of 16, Mane fled to Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to look for opportunities as a footballer. In exactly the same way a bully sulks at his family: He hid his sports bag in the grass outside his door the night before, revealing his plans only to his best friend. The behavior was discovered but also thanks to that time, the family let Mane play football, in exchange, he had to graduate first.

In 2009, Mane competed in the regional championships in Mbour, 80 kilometers from Dakar, and was invited to a trial with hundreds of other kids. With ragged, carelessly sewn shoes and a pair of shorts, Mane was targeted by Abbou Diatta, Generation Foot Academy’s veteran scout. Diatta hesitated because Mane was too quiet. In the end, he agreed to let Mane into the academy, but he was still allowed to return to the fields to work and harvest with his family every summer.

Generation Foot academy players often play for Metz, as the two sides signed a cooperation agreement in 2003. Mane only had to wait until the end of 2009 to join Metz academy, which is close to France’s borders with Germany and Luxembourg. In January 2010, the 18-year-old player was settled in this ancient city.

Mane made his Ligue 2 debut against Bastia in January 2012 and quickly got better and better. Unfortunately, however, Metz was later relegated to the French Third Division. And Mane dreams of new journeys. The 20-year-old often looks out the window of Metz’s bus and dreams of his next trip to the Champions League.

Mane’s first peak experience came in the summer of 2012, when he reached the quarter-finals of the 2012 Olympic men’s football with Senegal and was targeted by Gerard Houllier, then partnered with Red Bull.

Metz shouted for 2.5 million euros, thinking that the amount was enough to discourage partners when thinking about a new player with 19 experience in Ligue 2. However, they were wrong. Technical director Ralf Rangnick was interested in Mane’s performance against Tours in August. Metz decided to raise the asking price to 4 million euros. However, because they have to be relegated, they cannot cope with financial pressure.

Mane is the symbol of Senegal and of Africa. Photo: Getty .

This seems to be a choice of fate. Houllier is a former manager of Liverpool and he also contributed to the training of players for Liverpool. Salzburg coach Roger Schmidt at the time pursued a football style like Klopp’s Dortmund. And Mane adapted very quickly.

“Sadio practices a lot of tactics, especially learning how to kick gegenpressing, which means regaining the ball as quickly as possible after losing it easily,” Salzburg midfielder Andre Ramalho said in an interview. Because of the language barrier, Mane had to ask teammate Mustapha Mesloub to be his “manager”, a funny way of calling the character that helped him a lot in his integration journey in Austria.

“He was like family,” Mane said. Mesloub works as an interpreter for Mane, eats with him, Mesloub’s wife takes care of Mane, washes clothes for this striker. “I will never forget that period of my life,” said the Senegalese striker.

Turning point and Liverpool

Under the new technical director Rangnick, new coach Roger Schmidt, in the 2013/14 season, Salzburg won 6/6 matches in the Europa League group stage, and in January 2014, a big turning point occurred. They played a friendly against Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich. Ramalho called it an “unforgettable match”.

“We even missed the penalty,” the defender smiled. “Mane’s performance was outstanding. I felt sorry for the Bayern defender that day, he was unstoppable.” Mane scored his first goal in the 13th minute, earned a penalty for the second, and set up a third. Guardiola received what he called “a valuable lesson” for his 43rd birthday.

Mane has been the most important player of Liverpool in the past two years. Photo: Getty .

Salzburg wanted Mane to be the leader of the team in the 2014/15 Champions League campaign, but then Rangnick decided to remove the striker. Mane voluntarily skipped training in the second Champions League play-off, when Salzburg lost 0-3 to Malmo and were eliminated 2-4 on aggregate. After that incident, Salzburg decided to sell Mane to Spartak Moscow. However, the Senegal player wants to go to Dortmund. Finally, Southampton jumped in.

Mane later summed up his journey: “In Salzburg, I discovered real football. At Southampton, I reorganized my knowledge and skills. After that, I’m ready to sign for the biggest club in Europe.”

Mane did not score or assist in his first 46 of 67 Premier League games. But everything changed in the match against Aston Villa on May 16, 2015. He scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history: Three goals in 2 minutes 56 seconds. Mane calls it “a trigger pull”. “I told myself I couldn’t make any more mistakes. I had to step up to a new level, and from that point on, anything was possible.”

However, trouble arose once again. Mane was benched by Ronald Koeman against Norwich in January 2016 after arriving late to a team meeting. The news hunters close to Southampton rumored that Mane did not do it on purpose. The reason is he lost his way. He couldn’t find a meeting room in the hotel. But Koeman doesn’t accept that excuse.

Southampton shouted for £34m and initially, it was too high for Liverpool. When this team realized that Coutinho would come to Barcelona in January 2018, they were more confident and closed the deal.

As Mane lost confidence in the early months, Klopp spoke to Mane privately. “He said he had to turn around, but he hid the fact that Coutinho was leaving. He showed faith in me. I said to him: I want to play often, because the day of voting for the African Ballon d’Or is coming. I want to compete with Mohamed Salah.”

If the hat-trick against Aston Villa was the trigger, then Coutinho’s departure would have the same effect. Switching wings with Salah made it easier for Mane to breathe. Andrew Robertson on the left was often high, Mane was bundled into the center playing as a No. 10. Mane became the best player in Africa that year.

Success now makes Mane a national hero and people often look to the present to praise. Only Mane understood, and he also shared many times, he came up from the mistakes of his youth. Unnecessary fights with coaches, undisciplined times, too much wasted time. Mane felt regretful.

Gerard Houllier said it was he who introduced Mane to Liverpool, but if he had come to Liverpool at that time, he would have failed. That was the time when Mane was determined. That’s when Klopp arrived and the red shirt converged enough elements for Mane to shine. Europe is also an arrangement of fate.