In a recent podcast, Rio Ferdinand had Sadio Mané as his guest where they discussed the reason Mané joined Liverpool instead of Manchester United or Tottenham. The conversation was shared in the Podcast’s official X handle, Rio Ferdinand Presents.
Softfootball reported Sadio Mané’s contribution for Senegal was evident in the international friendly match against Kenya, where Senegal came out victorious with an 8-0 result.
Mané highlighted his main reason for joining a club, he said,
We will build a team no one want to play against and then if will grow up together and then you will play every game.
Rio Ferdinand responded by calling it a killer line which also puts emphasis on Mané’s focus on finding the right team. Mané admitted that Manchester United had also reached out to him at the same time, he said,
Yeah, I was talking to Vangaal, I want you to come to Manchester United, I said really? He say yeah. My question you have depay, you have Rooney, you have di maria, you have van persie, I think this time where am I going to play? If you do good training, good impression you will play, so I was not convinced about, I have meeting with Tottenham, I see the facilities, I meet the coach, I talk to him and I was more convinced than the man United project because man United was too many, the problem was too many big players so for me. Sadio Mané knew that his mind was made up when Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp called, Three days after klopp called me I say, this is my club, this is the right yeah, this is what I want to do.
Studying Mané performances in matches so far, one can say that his careful decision and focus paid off. In the Saudi Pro League match where Al Nassr played against Al Ittihad, Sadio Mané scored one of the goals alongside Ronaldo which gave them a 2-0 win over Ittihad.
Watch the Podcast below:
This conversation stirs a lot of deep thoughts and also shows how carefully Mané had considered his options before settling for Liverpool. It was mainly about being in a club where he could grow and contribute to building something unique.
