Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has declared Sadio Mane as his favourite Liverpool player and tipped the forward to win the Ballon d’Or.
Mane has been in inspired form this season with 22 goals in 48 games including eight in his last 11 appearances. He has largely outshone his fellow Reds star Mohamed Salah since they both returned from the African Cup of Nations in February. Mane guided Senegal to glory at that competition, overcoming Salah’s Egypt on penalties in the final while they also defeated Egypt in World Cup qualification on penalties to book Senegal’s place in Qatar.
Mane signed for Liverpool from Southampton for £34m in 2016 and has scored 119 goals in 266 games. He was the first major signing under Jurgen Klopp and provided the foundation for today’s success as his early performances ensured the Reds returned to the Champions League. Without Mane’s impact, the base wouldn't have been laid for future signings such as Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.
Like Salah, Mane’s contract expires at the end of next season but talk of a renewal has been much less publicised than the Egyptian’s. Reports emerged earlier this week that Bayern Munich were plotting an ambitious summer swoop for the Senegalese star.
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Former Reds defender Carragher joked that he wouldn’t allow this to happen and hailed his impact since joining the club, especially during the second half of the season.
“When I said earlier this week that Sadio Mane will have to get past me before he ever leaves Liverpool, I was only half joking,” Carragher wrote in The Telegraph. “I may not be able to shadow world-class strikers as much as in my prime, but in Mane’s case an exception can be made. Any club trying to lure him from Anfield this summer ought to face a blockade. Mane is my favourite Liverpool player of the Jurgen Klopp era - often underrated and underestimated.
“Since January, the tendency to overlook him while Mohamed Salah grabbed all the attention has slightly changed. If Mane continues his current form he may help inspire Liverpool to four trophies, including the FA Cup against Chelsea this weekend. He will also be the Premier League’s most likely winner of the 2022 Ballon d’Or.
“When the nominees are considered, judgement will be based on performances across a European season rather than a calendar year. Which English-based player has had a bigger impact on the domestic and world stage in this campaign? Mane scored Senegal’s winning penalty in the African Cup of Nations and repeated the trick to take his country to the World Cup. He must be a frontrunner. It already looks like a shoot-out between Mane and Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema. That means there may be more at stake than a Champions League winners’ medal when they meet in Paris.”
Mane has often been somewhat of an unsung hero at Liverpool, not always receiving the headlines he perhaps rightfully deserves. This goes back to when he first signed for the club from Southampton with Carragher reflecting how he underestimated the forward. at the time.
He said: “From the day he arrived at Liverpool, it has felt like he has been misjudged. When Mane joined Liverpool in June, 2016, I gave my immediate verdict on the deal via social media. ‘I think £30 million is expensive,’ I wrote. That tweet has not aged well. Neither have many of the responses agreeing with it. There was a consensus that Mane was overpriced.
“If his profile has not been the same as Salah’s in the last four years, that has much to do with Mane’s selfless approach to his team-mate’s extraordinary goal feats. Mane was Liverpool’s player of the year in his first season playing on the right of a three-man attack. He announced himself at Liverpool with a brilliant debut goal against Arsenal, cutting in from the right wing and finding the top corner with his left foot.
“When it was suggested Bayern Munich were interested in signing Mane this summer, my first reaction was ‘what club in the world wouldn’t be?’ If Mane leaves Liverpool, you would expect Real Madrid and Barcelona to be making enquiries, too, because world-class forwards with his pace, skill and versatility are so rare. Mane could fit into any profile of a team. That cannot be said of all modern strikers.”
