2023-08-01 22:58:19
After a turbulent season at Bayern Munich, Senegalese football player Sadio Mané announced on Tuesday that he was leaving the club to join Saudi club Al-Nassr. The 30-year-old striker joins Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
Published on: 08/01/2023 – 22:58Modified on: 08/01/2023 – 22:57
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New decision of the Saudi offensive on world football. Senegalese player Sadio Mané signed on Tuesday August 1 with the Al-Nassr club, where he will play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. A new phase is beginning for the 31-year-old striker, far from the European spotlight, in a championship at a level that is still uncertain.
After the Golden Balls Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, Saudi Arabia washed away the affront of the refusal of megastar Lionel Messi by offering the Senegalese Sadio Mané, second for the 2022 Ballon d’Or behind Benzema.
Neither Bayern Munich nor Al-Nassr specify the duration of the contract but the German press evokes a three-season commitment for the 2022 African champion and winner of the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019, one more than ” CR7″, who joined Saudi Arabia in January 2023 for two seasons.
The Saudi media speak of a transfer estimated at around 30 million euros for the finances of the “Rekordmeister”, with an annual salary of 40 million euros for the Senegalese 30-year-old, plus 10 million euros in possible bonuses that could be paid to him according to the results of the Saudi club.
Tormented season
After a tormented season at Bayern Munich, Sadio Mané thus left Bavaria through the back door, having failed to meet the expectations raised by his arrival in the summer of 2022.
Announced as the successor to Robert Lewandowski, if not at the forefront of the Munich attack, at least as the headliner of the workforce, Mané had a thunderous start in the first weeks in the summer of 2022. , but never proved decisive with Bayern thereafter.
His time in Munich will however be marked by his heated argument with Leroy Sané in mid-April in the locker room of the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, after the defeat against City (3-0) in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
“The farewell with the club hurts me. I would have liked a different ending. I know I could have helped this team this season. I wanted to show it to everyone,” the striker told Sky Sports.
The upcoming African Cup of Nations
Sadio Mané is the latest in a long list of prestigious players who have responded to the sirens of Saudi petrodollars, like CR7, the French Benzema and N’Golo Kante (Al-Ittihad), but also his Senegalese compatriot Kalidou Koulibaly ( Al Hilal), the Algerian Riyad Mahrez (Al-Ahli) or the Brazilian Roberto Firmino (Al-Ahli).
After six seasons under the colors of the Liverpool Reds where he played his best years from 2016 to 2022 (champion in 2020, winner of the Cup in 2022, of the Champions League of the European Supercup and of the Club World Cup in 2019), and a season at Bayern, the “African player of the year” 2019 and 2022 thus exiles himself far from the spotlight.
Star of the Senegalese selection, Mané took the “Lions” for the first time to the top of the African continent in January 2022, and will want to achieve the double in January 2024 in Côte d’Ivoire during the next African Cup of Nations. A rare “back-to-back”, which only Egypt (1957/59 and 2006/08/10) and Cameroon (2000/02) have achieved.
It remains to be seen whether the level of the Saudi championship, certainly enhanced with the arrival of these megastars, for some in pre-retirement, will allow him to maintain the level to continue to play a leading role in selection.
Deprived of Mondial-2022 after his injury to the right fibula which kept him away from the field from the beginning of November 2022 to the end of February 2023, Sadio Mané will probably want to push until the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and the Mexico. He will then be 34 years old.
With AFP
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