Former Liverpool forward Sadio Mane is the latest high-profile player to move to Saudi Arabia
Sadio Mane has been denied a reunion with Liverpool a year after his departure from the Reds.
The Senegalese, who scored 120 goals in 269 appearances in six seasons at Anfield, won all the major honors with Liverpool before moving to Bayern Munich last summer. However, his time in Bavaria came to a premature end.
The 31-year-old is the latest high-profile player to move to Saudi Arabia following the deal between Al-Nassr and Bayern. As a result, Mane will miss his former club in Singapore, while Liverpool take on the German giants on Wednesday (August 2).
Indeed, the Senegalese international’s imminent departure comes as no surprise given his waning fortunes in Monaco during the second half of last season. The striker has made 38 appearances for Bayern in all competitions, including 27 from the start, and has made 25 appearances in the Bundesliga. However, due to a leg injury which required surgery, he missed more than three months of the season and was knocked out of the World Cup half-time.
He was then deemed overwhelmed by new manager Thomas Tuchel, who is on the wall for Mane as he allegedly punched team-mate Leroy Sane in the face after Bayern’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City in the Champions League last season . The two argued both on the pitch and after the final whistle and the confrontation continued in the dressing room.
After the altercation, Sane was then spotted with a bloody lip and her teammates should have ripped the pair apart in the locker room. Mane, who scored 12 goals for his new club, was later fined £250,000 and given a one-game ban by Bayern for missing the 1-1 draw with Hoffenheim. And although he will return to the starting XI next time and even score when Bayern lost 3-1 to Mainz, he ultimately finished the season on the fringes of Tuchel and was an unused substitute when they reclaimed the title. from the Bundesliga picked up on the last day of the season.
This title was to be his only major victory for the German team which lost in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal. A disappointing season, despite an eleventh consecutive title won, Munich managed the essentials.
As a result, Mane’s problems at Bayern mean Liverpool will not receive the maximum transfer fee of £35million agreed upon when the Senegalese was sold last summer. The Reds were initially paid £27.5m, with a further £5m based on attendance and £2.5m in add-ons due, based on individual and team performances.
How much of that extra £7.5m he will be entitled to Liverpool is debatable.
Bayern’s first initial offer was worth £21.5m, with the add-ons written off as “ridiculous”. Valued at just over £4m, they were all based on individual and team performances, with The Times reporting that the Reds would only receive full compensation if Monaco win the Champions League and the player the Ballon d’Or, each season over the course of a three-year contract.
While Mane’s efforts for club and country in 2022 saw him crowned Ballon d’Or runner-up last year, it’s safe to say he will come nowhere close this year. In the meantime, it’s very unlikely that he activated all of his appearance-based add-ons before leaving Monaco.
Bayern won at least the Bundesliga title last year as far as team performance is concerned, even if they fell short in their Champions League performance. Should Mane leave, it will depend on the specific agreement between the two clubs whether Liverpool would still be entitled to bonus payments if such triumphs were achieved without the forward within the term of his initial three-year contract.
As a result, the Reds may have deposited a fraction of that additional £5m based on appearances, on top of the initial £27.5m, with the remainder of that total amount, alongside the £2.5m finals based on individual and team performance, unattainable. While Liverpool have agreed to a £35m package which has seen them sell the striker for a profit, the reality is they will receive less than the £34m they paid Southampton for the Senegalese in 2016. Having completed his move to Al-Nassr, Mane has the latest Reds figure to join Saudi Arabia, following in the footsteps of Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Steven Gerrard and Robbie Fowler.
Therefore, he will reunite with at least three of his former teammates in the Gulf state in the Saudi Pro League this week in Singapore, if not the rest of Klopp’s Liverpool squad. Meanwhile, Al-Nassr’s new teammates include David Ospina, Alex Telles, Marcelo Brozovic, Seko Fofana, Talisca and Cristiano Ronaldo.
