'Sadio Mane was horrendous when I first saw him play but one man changed everything'

Sadio Mane is present considered 1 of the champion forwards successful the world, but Shane Long has admitted that helium thought the Senegalese planetary was "horrendous" aft arriving astatine Southampton successful 2014

Shane Long initially thought Sadio Mane was "horrendous" erstwhile helium archetypal arrived successful the Premier League.

Mane's travel to stardom began successful the younker ranks of Generation Foot, earlier signing his archetypal nonrecreational declaration with Metz successful 2011. A twelvemonth later, Red Bull Salzburg snapped him up, and his awesome grounds of 45 goals and 32 assists successful 87 games caught the attraction of bigger clubs.

In 2014, Southampton brought Mane to the English top-flight successful a £10million deal, breathtaking fans but leaving Long, his then-teammate, unimpressed. Speaking connected Ben Foster's Fozcast, Long revealed: "When Sadio archetypal came with archetypal team, helium was horrendous.

"Obviously, helium wasn't horrendous, I take that back. But helium had these moments wherever you thought 'ooh he's got thing here'. You utilized to footwear him and wounded yourself, helium had that spot astir him." Long recalled Mane's aboriginal days, saying: "He could instrumentality connected everybody and past footwear it into Row Z trying to transverse the ball, helium could tally it disconnected the pitch."

However, Long credited then-manager Ronald Koeman with processing Mane into the subordinate helium is today, up of the lucifer betwixt Mane's erstwhile sides connected the southbound seashore connected Sunday. He explained: "But past Koeman managed to manager him and bid him and helium conscionable deed this tally of signifier which made you deliberation this feline could spell to the precise top," reports the Liverpool Echo.

Despite Koeman not winning immoderate trophies with Southampton betwixt 2014 and 2016, Long pointed retired that the manager played a important relation successful unlocking Mane's potential, sharpening the subordinate and ironing retired his weaknesses. After scoring an awesome 25 goals successful 75 appearances for the Saints, Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool snatched up Mane successful 2016 for a whopping £34million.

Mane proved to beryllium a game-changer for Liverpool, playing 269 matches for the squad from 2016 to 2022 and contributing to their historical Premier League rubric triumph successful 2019/20. Mane besides celebrated a Champions League triumph successful 2018/19, alongside securing an FA Cup and EFL Cup during the pursuing 2021/22 season.

With 120 goals and 42 assists nether his loop for Liverpool, Mane took connected a caller situation astatine Bayern Munich successful 2022 for a rumoured £35million transportation fee. Despite sky-high expectations, Mane recovered it challenging to replicate his stunning show levels successful the Bundesliga, tallying lone 12 goals successful 38 games.

However, adjacent with Mane's slower pace, Bayern inactive ended up claiming some the Bundesliga rubric and the DFB Pokal successful the 2022/23 season. The star's stint successful Germany was remarkably brief, arsenic helium transferred to Saudi Pro League squad Al-Nassr past summertime successful a £24m woody that reportedly earns him a whopping £650,000 per week.

Since joining forces with Cristiano Ronaldo successful Riyadh, Mane has scored 24 goals successful 64 matches and helped unafraid the Arab Club Champions Cup past year. After playing 10 matches successful the 2024/25 season, Al-Nassr are presently 3rd successful the Saudi Pro League, trailing down leaders Al-Hilal and second-place Al-Ittihad. Mane has participated successful each lucifer this season, scoring 3 times truthful far, with aspirations of clinching the league rubric erstwhile the play concludes adjacent year.

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