Sadio Mane has been denied a reunion with Liverpool, a year on from leaving the Reds. Sadio Mane has been denied a reunion with Liverpool, a year on from leaving the Reds.
Sadio Mane, a former Liverpool forward, is the latest high-profile player to go to Saudi Arabia.
The Senegalese won every major award with Liverpool before leaving for Bayern Munich last summer, scoring 120 goals in 269 games over six seasons. His time in Bavaria, however, has come to an end.
After an agreement was reached between Al-Nassr and Bayern, the 31-year-old became the latest high-profile star to relocate to Saudi Arabia. As a result, Mane will be unable to face his former club in Singapore, with Liverpool set to face the German giants on Wednesday (August 2).
Given his poor form in Munich during the second half of last season, the Senegal international’s impending departure comes as no surprise.
The forward would make 38 appearances in all competitions for Bayern, with 27 coming from the start, and featured 25 times in the Bundesliga. However, a leg injury, which required surgery, saw him miss over three months of the campaign and ruled him out of the mid-season World Cup.
He was later deemed surplus to needs by new manager Thomas Tuchel, with the writing on the wall for Mane since he allegedly hit teammate Leroy Sane in the face following Bayern’s 3-0 Champions League defeat to Manchester City last season. The couple were spotted shouting both on the field and after the final whistle, with the fight spilling over into the locker room.
Sane would then be spotted with a bloodied lip following the altercation, with reports suggesting their team-mates had to pull the pair apart in the dressing room.
Mane, who scored 12 goals for his new club, was subsequently handed a £250,000 fine by Bayern, along with a one-match suspension as he sat out their 1-1 draw with Hoffenheim. And while he would return to the starting XI next time out, even scoring as the Bavarians lost 3-1 to Mainz, he ultimately finished the campaign on the fringes of Tuchel’s side, and was an unused substitute as they clinched the Bundesliga title on the last day of the season.
Such honours would be his sole major title for the German club, as they were eliminated in the quarterfinals of both the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal. Despite winning their 11th consecutive championship, Munich had a terrible season.
As a result of Mane’s problems at Bayern, Liverpool will not earn the maximum £35 million amount agreed upon when selling the Senegalese last summer. The Reds received an initial £27.5 million, with a further £5 million owing depending on appearances and a further £2.5 million in add-ons owed based on individual and team successes.
How much of that additional £7.5m Liverpool will be entitled to is debatable.
Bayern’s first initial bid was worth £21.5m, with its add-ons dismissed as ‘laughable’. Equating to a little over £4m, they were all based on individual and team achievements, with The Times reporting that the Reds would only receive the full fee if Munich were to win the Champions League, and the player the Ballon d’Or, each season over the course of a three-year contract.
While Mane’s achievements for club and country in 2022 earned him runner-up in the Ballon d’Or last year, it’s safe to say he won’t be in the running again this year. Meanwhile, he is unlikely to have activated all of his appearance-based add-ons before to leaving Munich.
When it comes to team achievements last year, Bayern at least won the Bundesliga title, even if they fell short in the Champions League. If Mane were to leave, it would depend on the exact agreement reached between the two clubs whether Liverpool would still be entitled to bonus payments if such victories were accomplished without the forward within the first three years of his deal.
As a result, the Reds may have banked a portion of those £5 million add-ons based on appearances, on top of the initial £27.5 million charge, with the remainder of that total fee, as well as the last £2.5 million based on individual and team performances, unattainable. While Liverpool agreed to a £35 million deal to ensure they sold the striker at a profit, the fact is that they will earn less than the £34 million they paid Southampton for him in 2016.
Mane has become the latest Reds player to join Al-Nassr, following in the footsteps of Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Steven Gerrard, and Robbie Fowler in making the move to Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, he will at least be reunited with three of his former team-mates in the Gulf State in the Saudi Pro League, if not the rest of Klopp’s Liverpool squad in Singapore this week. Meanwhile, new team-mates at Al-Nassr will include David Ospina, Alex Telles, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana, Talisca and Cristiano Ronaldo.
