Sadio Mane

Sadio Mane is a Senegalese professional footballer who is currently playing as a forward for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich which is one of the most successful football clubs in the world and the Senegal National team as he hails from Senegal. At Bayern Munich his number is 17. The 30 years old Senegalese footballer who is known for his dribbling, pressing and speed, is considered one of best players in the world along with being one of the greatest African players of all time. In his professional career of over a decade, he has worked with some major clubs like Liverpool, Southampton, Red Bull Salzburg, etc. 

Born in Bombali, Sedhiou, Senegal, Mane began playing football at a very young age. He left his village at the age of 15 to pursue his ambition of becoming a successful Professional footballer. He had the full support of his family to achieve his goal. 

Years after playing unprofessional football, he succeeded to make his professional debut on January 14, 2012 with Ligue 2 club Metz, coming as a substitute for Kevin Diaz in a 1-0 home win against Ligue 2 club Bastia. Following year he departed from Metz to join Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg in 2012 accepting a deal worth €4 million. Later, he was transferred to the English club Southampton and became a part of the club making a new Premier League record for scoring the fastest hat-trick (176 seconds) in a 6-1 win against Aston Villa in 2015. 

Early Years

The former Liverpool midfielder, Sadio Mane hails from Senegal, an African nation. Before signing a contract with Bundesliga club Bayern Munich as a forward, he played as a midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool. This Senegal sport personality was born on April 10, 1992 in Sedhiou, Senegal where he grew up in a small impoverished family in a small village of Bambali. To get rid of poverty and make his family proud, he left his village at the age of 15 to pursue his ambition and build a successful career for himself in football. How did this Idea of becoming a footballer come to his mind? He watched the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament which inspired him to become a Footballer. 

How Mane became a Footballer? (Childhood Story) 

He was raised around people who were all covered with the sand of poverty or who weren’t financially strong enough to meet their basic needs. Growing up in an impoverished village with a population of just 24,213, his father never had enough money to send him school. So he would just get out of home and join the boys playing football in the street. He recalled that when he was two or three years old, he could never imagine himself without a ball. His unavoidable love for football kept becoming intense. 

He recalled “when I was young, all I could think of was the Premier League which I watched on Television. I had this big dream of becoming a part of it and playing for them”

When he got a little older, he would just go on roads, play football with his friends and would go to watch football matches. He wanted to see his heroes, idols and imagine himself in their place. 

Finally in 2002, when the World Cup took place his country Senegal got to go to the Quarter finals in their first appearance on the screen. This gave birth a different flame of inspiration in him to become an aspiring footballer. As the Senegalese footballer says, he and his friends began organising tournaments in their village and Mane got more and more focused on winning the game. Everybody in the village would tell him that he is the best but his family was extremely religious and they had some other plans for him.

Somehow, they all could see one thing clearly that there was only football in Mane’s heart and mind. So, Mane started convincing his uncle to let him move to a local to learn a little more before he set off for the Dakar City, Capital of their country. Seeing his passion and talent for football, everyone finally agreed to accept his request and helped him reach a higher spot. His family and uncles sold all the farm produce in order to collect money for Mane. Sadio Mane ‘s talent and playing skills persuaded everyone from the village to contribute money although this fact can not be neglected that his uncle was his first and only help. 

When he first moved to the Dakar, he went to live with a family he didn’t even know. His family and that new family had someone in common on whom he was allowed in. He offered them some money and explained why he was there and what he needed before moving into the house. After they allowed him in, they took really good care of him and everything else to make him focus only on his goal, the football.

Next day after reaching Dakar’s suburb, he just set off to get selected for the team. 

He describes what happened next “When I arrived there on the next day, I saw a lot of boys being tested for entry into the team. I will never forget this,and it is funny now, but when I went to try it out there, an older man looked at me like I was in the wrong place.”

That man asked Mane, “are you here for the test?”. He answered yes, then he asked him “with those boots?”. He was angrily looking at his shoes and said, “How can you play in them?”. Mane really wore bad shoes, really bad shoes as they had a hole in them. The man went on, “and with those shorts? You don’t even have proper football shorts?” 

Mane answered all of his questions in just one answer saying “What I have come with are the best I have and I only want to play, to show my talent”. After this incident, he got on the pitch and left that man’s jaw dropped. The surprise could be read like words on his face. 

When Mane came off the pitch, the man came to him and said “I’m picking you straight away. You’ll play in my team” That day proved to become a miracle in his life. He became the part of local team’s academy where he made a total of 90 appearances and scored 131 goals in just two seasons. 

Is Sadio Mane Married?

No, the Senegalese footballer is unmarried but surely his relationship rumours are spreading. It is difficult to say which relationship rumour in regard to him is right or wrong but one thing is to be noted that a woman named Melissa Reddy is believed to be her girlfriend. Mane’s rumoured Girlfriend is a professional journalist from South Africa and currently she is working for Sky Sports News. A common thing between her and her reported boyfriend is football. Yes, they both are related to football. But how is Melissa related to the sport? Let’s find out. 

Melissa Reddy – Mane’s Girlfriend

The Bayern Munich talisman Sadio Mane is not single. He has an African girlfriend named Melissa Reddy who is a successful Professional just like him. Melissa is a professional journalist currently associated with the Sky Sports News. The 5′ 5″ tall and 33 years old Melissa has also written a book called “Believe Us: How Jurgen Klopp Transformed Liverpool into Title Winners”. 

An interesting fact about her is that despite having the nationality of South Africa, she is of Indian origin. She comes from sports Journalism. She grew up in an environment where children were encouraged to play sports, so she spent her whole childhood playing sports like cricket, football and watching rugby. She is a fearless woman who I never afraid to talk about social discrimination topics for like racism and sexism. Mane’s rumored Girlfriend is a big fan of Liverpool. 

The duo is completely immersed in the world of sports especially football, the only difference is position. Melissa’s passion for football is outstanding. The African journalist has written some blogs on a few club’s players as well as football. A few months ago in April 2022, Melissa took an interview with Pep Guardiola, former manager of Manchester City. In the interview they discussed the most decisive, absorbing fixture in the Premier League. 

Reddy tweeted on his Twitter about the interview in which she wrote  “Pep was fascinating on how Manchester City and Liverpool redefined what it takes to win titles and enjoy rivalry despite the need to be near perfect”. 

The popular and successful Sky journalist graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and received a degree in Media and Communications. With her expertise in Media and Communications, Melissa has worked for other media platforms such as BBC 5 Live, Premier League Productions, Fox Singapore, The Athletic, The Anfield Wrap and Sky News. 

The South African journalist started her professional career as an intern at a Business Channel in South Africa after completing her studies. By 2011, her expertise bought her the position of Football Head and later the Deputy Editor of KICK OFF Magazine, the largest South African Media organization. She was the first woman to do so. Later she worked as a  Liverpool Correspondent. Apart from these, she worked for RedMen Tv, The Athletic, Sunday Supplement, BBC’s Premier League Show, Joe,  Anfield Wrap, The football Ramble, and BT Sport’s Football Writers Podcast. Melissa started her own podcast too in 2020 named “Between The Lines with Melissa Reddy”. 

Belonging to Mass Media and Journalism Background, Melissa enjoys a significant amount of fan following on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Coming from Media, she is quite active on most of the major social media platforms as she knows how to create a large network with right content. Sadio Mane ‘s rumored Girlfriend is quite active on Instagram with a following of 110k followers. On Twitter where she is available under handle (@MelissaReddy_), she is very close to 364k followers. She regularly shares current football Status or breaking news on Twitter. On Facebook, 240k people follow Melissa as she is very active constantly sharing her work with the network she built. 

Football Career

The Bayern Munich star with number 17 has been playing football since 2009 when he started his youth career with the local Senegalese club, Generation Foot. Subsequently, he played for many major clubs including Liverpool and Bayern Munich. To overview his career, have a look at the below given table. 

In 2011, Mane started his senior career with Metz, the club which had a partnership with Generation Foot. After playing for sometime, Mane made his professional debut on January 14, 2012 in a match against Bastia in Ligue 2. He scored a total of 2 goals in 22 appearances for the club. Out of 22, 19 appearances were made in his first league season.

In 2012, Metz decided an amount of €2 million for Mane’s transfer, which attracted a lot of attention from some large clubs. Having received so many offers, Metz increased the value to €4 million and Mane moved to Red Bull Salzburg, club of Austrian Bundesliga on August 31, 2012. This was the third biggest transfer fee Metz had ever received. Mane scored a total of 31 goals in 63 appearances for the team. He scored his first hat-trick for the team in the third round of Austrian Cup on October 31st. A year later, on October 27, 2013 he scored his first hat-trick in Austrian Bundesliga. Mane went on winning titles and matches for the club but by August 2014 he determined to transfer to another club. He forced his transfer by not showing up for the training and one of the most important games for Salzburg to qualify for the Champions League. 

Southampton

Mane finally succeeded to get transferred out of Salzburg and on September 1, 2014, he moved to Premier League side Southampton signing for a deal worth £11.8 million. He signed a four years long contract lasting till 2018. He made his debut for Southampton in a 2-1 League Cup win over Arsenal while he made his first league appearance for the club on September 27. In the next few months, Mane helped the team win three consecutive matches against Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Arsenal. On May 16, 2015 Mane set a new Premier League record for scoring the fastest hat-trick by scoring three times in only 2 minutes 56 seconds. 

Mane played a total two seasons (2014-15, 2015-16) for the club scoring 21 goals in 67 appearances. 

Liverpool

Liverpool has a record of signing players for such a big amount that names them in the list of most expensive players. Same happened to Mane. On June 28, 2016 after joining Liverpool on a five year contract, Mane became the most expensive South African player with a transfer of £34 million. On August 14, he !ade his Premier League debut for the Club in a 4-3 win over Arsenal. In April 2017, he was also named a PFA Team of the year for scoring 13 League goals for Liverpool in his first season. Even on May 9, 2017 he was rewarded with Best Player of the Season award by Liverpool. 

Mane played six seasons for English club Liverpool during which he won several titles and awards such as Premier League Player of the month, nomination for PFA Players’Player of the year, PFA Team of the Year, sharing Premier League Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah, 2019 FIFA Club World Cup winner, etc. Mane also set a new record for Liverpool of 22 consecutive home wins.

Bayern Munich

On June 22, 2022, Mane was finally signed by Bundesliga club Bayern Munich on a contract running until June 30, 2025. The transfer fee paid by German club for the African footballer is reported to be €32 million which raised to €41 million due to the number of appearances he made for Liverpool and accomplishments he made. 

International Career

On the international level, Sadio Mane played for his own country, Senegal National Team in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2018, he also played for his country’s 23 men squad in the twenty first FIFA World Cup in Russia where France emerged as the World Champion. Also he played several continental (African Cups) games for his national team. In 2021, they beat Egypt for the first time in African Cup competition and in finals he won the Trophy and the title of Player of the Tournament. 

Sadio Mane Net Worth

Sadio Mane the 30 years old African footballer enjoys a fascinating amount of income. While working with Liverpool he had a net worth of $25 million according to the February 2022 report. He makes an estimated amount of 5 million pounds every year. 

Well, quite a significant part of his salary goes to Charity as Sadio Mane is a Muslim and believes in Philanthropy. He use to donate lakhs of pounds for needy people and children. In 2019, he donated £250,000 to build a school for the poor children of his own village Bambali, Senegal. Two years later in 2021, he donated £500,000 for the construction of a hospital in his home town Bambali to make sure that every individual of his village can enjoy health. 

The player also likes to invest a little part of his income in the most expensive and luxurious cars. Though he once said that he doesn’t need 10 Ferraris or 20 diamond watches as they will not do any good to him or anyone else but yet he has a small collection of beautiful and expensive cars. The Bayern Munich Star has cars like Mercedes G63 AMG worth $200,000, Audi RS7 worth $120,000, Bentley Continental GT worth $200,00 and Range Rover Evoque worth $45,000.