When Liverpool sanctioned Sadio Mane’s exit to Bayern Munich last summer, they did so knowing they were selling the Senegalese for a profit after enjoying his peak years.
A £34m signing from Southampton, on this day in 2016 no less, the forward registered an impressive 120 goals and 38 assists from 269 appearances for the Reds across six seasons. Winning every honour there was to win, his status as an English, European, and world champion at Anfield ensures he is very much a club legend.
With one year left on his contract, the 31-year-old ultimately decided he craved pastures new last summer and was waved off to Bavaria as a result. While Bayern’s first bid was worth just an initial £21.5m, Anfield bosses were satisfied with the overall package that was eventually agreed as they shook on a deal worth £35m.
Liverpool would receive an initial £27.5m from the Bundesliga giants, but a year on, with Senegalese’s future with the club uncertain, just how close have the Reds got to pocketing that full fee?
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The Reds would be due a further £5m based on appearances, with £2.5m in add-ons also owed, based on individual and team achievements.
Compare this to the add-ons on from Bayern’s first bid, which was dismissed as ‘laughable’. Equating to a little over £4m, they were all based on individual and team achievements, with The Times reporting that Liverpool would only receive the full fee if the German club were to win the Champions League, and the player the Ballon d’Or, each season over the course of a three-year contract.
Safe to say, the Reds negotiated themselves a considerably better deal, though it’s unclear what the compromised add-ons depended on beyond appearances, and individual and team achievements. Yet Mane and Bayern’s struggles have perhaps still limited Liverpool’s abilities to bank the full fee.
The forward would make 38 appearances in all competitions for Bayern last season, with 27 coming from the start, and featured 25 times in the Bundesliga as a leg injury saw him miss over three months of the campaign. Having rarely missed a game during his Reds career, it is safe to suggest that Mane did not feature as much as the Bavarians would have liked last season.
Scoring 12 goals for his new club, the 31-year-old did get his hands on the Bundesliga title last season. But it was to be his only major prize for the German outfit, as they lost in the quarter-finals of both the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal. A disappointing season for the club, despite winning their 11th successive title, they achieved the bare minimum.
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 won’t be anywhere near the running again this year though. Meanwhile, the forward is reportedly deemed surplus to requirements by Bayern, and unlikely to activate his full appearance-based add-ons as a result.
While the Bavarians fell short for the Champions League title, they at least won the Bundesliga title when it comes to team achievements. Were Mane to move on, it depends on the specific agreement met between the two clubs whether Liverpool would still be entitled to bonus payments if such triumphs are achieved without the forward within the span of his three-year contract.
For the record, Mane doesn’t want to leave Bayern despite speculation linking him with a return to the Premier League or a switch to Saudi Arabia.
“I love challenges, and Bayern is a big challenge,” he was recently quoted as saying by the Mirror. “It's up to me to do everything to meet this challenge. God willing. If everything goes well, I'm going to return to Bayern."
Meanwhile, his agent has had their say on his future, and believes he will stay in Bavaria.
"I haven't heard about approaches from Saudi - what's certain is that he stays at Bayern,” agent Bacary Cisse told Senegalese television station 2STV. “He signed for three years. He spent one year and still has two. So yes, for now he stays at Bayern.
“I don't think Sadio had a bad season. The season started in August, he got injured in November and was out for four months. All in all, he had 12 goals and six assists despite not playing for four months - that's not nothing.
"He also had 10 goals disallowed by VAR. That in part means that his teammates did not adapt to his game, which was very quick. I think if they had adapted to his game, Sadio would probably have scored five more goals. I'm optimistic because I know him well.”
It remains to be seen if Mane indeed stays put at Bayern Munich, and if he’ll be able to replicate his best Liverpool form in the future. Regardless, while the Reds received that initial £27.5m, it remains up in the air just how much they’ll receive in full from selling the Senegalese.
