Sadio Mané (born 10 April 1992) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr and the Senegal national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best wingers of his generation and one of the greatest African players of all time.
Mané began his professional career with Ligue 2 club Metz at the age of 19, but he departed after a solitary season to join Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg in 2012 for a fee of €4 million, winning a league and cup domestic double in the 2013–14 season. Later that summer, Mané transferred to English club Southampton for a club record fee of £11.8 million. There, he set a new Premier League record for the fastest hat-trick, scored in 176 seconds in a 6–1 win over Aston Villa in 2015.
Mané signed for fellow Premier League club Liverpool in 2016, for a reported fee of £34 million, making him the most expensive African player in history at that time. Having formed a formidable attacking trio with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino after the departure of prolific midfielder Philippe Coutinho, he helped the side reach back-to-back UEFA Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019, winning the latter. He also finished as the league's joint-top goalscorer in the 2018–19 season, winning the Premier League Golden Boot. Mané then helped end Liverpool's 30-year league title drought by winning the 2019–20 Premier League. In October 2021, he scored his 100th Premier League goal, becoming the third African to reach the landmark. Mané finished fourth and second in the 2019 and 2022 editions of the Ballon d'Or, respectively; and in The Best FIFA Men's Player he ranked fifth in 2019 and fourth in 2020.
At international level, Mané has registered 55 goals in 132 caps for Senegal since his debut in 2012, and currently ranks as his nation's all-time top goalscorer, and second in all-time appearances. He represented Senegal at the 2012 Olympics, as well as the 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2025 editions of the Africa Cup of Nations. In the 2019 tournament, Mané helped Senegal to a runners-up finish, and a year later, was named African Footballer of the Year. In the 2021 final, Mané scored the winning kick in the penalty shoot-out to give Senegal their first Africa Cup of Nations title, and was also named the Player of the Tournament. In 2022, he was crowned African Player of the Year for the second time. Mané would lead Senegal to a third AFCON final in 2025, once again being named the tournament's best player. Mané also represented his nation at the FIFA World Cup in 2018, the nation's second-ever appearance in the competition, and 2026, but missed the 2022 tournament due to injury.
Early life
Mané was born to Guinean parents in Bambali, Sédhiou, Senegal. He grew up in a religious household. He wished for a career in football, but his father (who was an imam) forbade him from playing the sport as a child. His father wanted him to prioritize his religious studies, however, his father died when he was seven years old. At the age of 15, he ran away from his home village with the help of a childhood friend, Luc Djiboune, and went to Dakar to pursue his ambition of becoming a footballer; from that time he was supported by his family to fulfill his potential.
Club career Early career In 2009, when playing in M'Bour, he was spotted by scouts and later referred to Génération Foot, a club that he helped attain promotion to the second division in the 2010–11 season.
Metz In 2011, Mané joined Metz which had a partnership with Génération Foot. He made his professional debut on 14 January 2012, coming on as a substitute for Kévin Diaz in the 75th minute of a 0–1 home defeat against Bastia in Ligue 2. He made 19 appearances in his first league season, 12 as a starter, and scored a solitary goal in a 2–5 loss to Guingamp at the Stade Saint-Symphorien on 4 May. Metz was relegated to the Championnat National at the end of the season.
Red Bull Salzburg
Metz set an asking price of €2 million for Mané, and he attracted attention, including from Austrian Bundesliga side Red Bull Salzburg sporting director Ralf Rangnick. Having received several offers throughout the summer, Metz upped their asking price to €4 million, and he moved to Salzburg on 31 August 2012, the third-biggest transfer fee that Metz had ever received.
He scored his first hat-trick for the club on 31 October, in a 3–1 away win at SC Kalsdorf in the third round of the Austrian Cup.
On 27 October 2013, he netted his first hat-trick in the Austrian Bundesliga, during a 3–0 win away to Grödig. He scored another treble on 7 May 2014 as Salzburg won 7–0 at Horn in the cup semi-finals; the season ended with the team winning a domestic double. At the end of August 2014 Mané forced a transfer out of the club, by not coming to the training and to the most important game for Salzburg at that time to qualify for the Champions League.Skandal um Sadio Mané vor Malmö-Spiel , weltfussball.at, 26 August 2014
Southampton 2014–15 season On 1 September 2014, Mané transferred to Premier League side Southampton for £11.8 million, signing a four-year contract. He made his debut 22 days later in a 2–1 League Cup victory over Arsenal, winning the penalty for Southampton's first goal. He made his first league appearance for the club in another 2–1 victory over Queens Park Rangers on 27 September, starting and assisting Ryan Bertrand for the first goal of the game. He scored his first goal for the club in an 8–0 victory over Sunderland on 18 October, although this was subsequently credited as an own goal by Patrick van Aanholt. He did, however, score his first goal in his next game, a 1–0 win over Stoke City a week later.
In December and January he scored in three successive matches, against Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal. Mané scored two late winning goals in 1–0 league victories at Queens Park Rangers on 7 February 2015 and at home to Crystal Palace on 3 March respectively. However, Mané had been dropped from Southampton's starting line-up for their 0–2 home defeat to Liverpool on 22 February as a punishment for being late to the stadium.
On 16 May, during Southampton's final home match of the season, Mané scored three times in 2 minutes 56 seconds in a 6–1 win over Aston Villa to set a new Premier League record for the fastest hat-trick. The record had been held since 1994 by Robbie Fowler, who scored three against Arsenal in 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Mané finished the season with 10 goals from 32 appearances in all competitions.
2015–16 season
Mané began the 2015–16 season by registering two assists in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round first leg match with Vitesse Arnhem at home and scoring in the return leg, as Southampton eased through to the next round 5–0 on aggregate. On 2 December, he took 39 seconds to open the scoring against Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the League Cup, but the Saints eventually lost 6–1 at home.
On 2 January 2016, he was again dropped from the starting line-up by manager Ronald Koeman for a match at Norwich City when he turned up late for a pre-match meeting. He received a straight red card on 12 March at the end of a 2–1 win at Stoke City for a collision into Erik Pieters, although this was quickly overturned on appeal.
Having failed to score in the league for over four months, Mané scored twice in a 3–2 victory over Liverpool on 20 March 2016, followed by five goals in the next five matches, including a hat-trick in a 4–2 victory against Manchester City on 1 May. He finished the season as Southampton's top scorer, with 15 goals in all competitions, including 11 in the Premier League, making him the club's joint top scorer alongside Graziano Pellè.
Liverpool 2016–17 season
On 28 June 2016, Mané joined Liverpool for a transfer fee of £34 million (which could rise to £36 million) on a five-year contract. The transfer fee made him the most expensive African player in history at the time. On 14 August, he made his Premier League debut for the Reds, scoring the fourth goal in a 4–3 away win against Arsenal. Having missed Liverpool's defeat at Burnley through a slight shoulder injury, Mané returned to the starting line-up against Burton Albion in the League Cup where he had two assists in a 5–0 win.
On 19 December, Mané scored the only goal of the 227th Merseyside derby in added time against Everton at Goodison Park. On 11 February 2017, Mané scored two goals within two minutes against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, for Liverpool's first league win in 2017. On 20 April 2017, Mané was named in the PFA Team of the Year after scoring 13 league goals in his first season with Liverpool. Despite missing the latter part of the campaign through injury, Mané was awarded the Liverpool Player of the Season award on 9 May 2017.
2017–18 season In the first match of the new season, on 12 August 2017, away to Watford, Mané scored Liverpool's first goal of the season in a 3–3 draw. He was named Premier League Player of the Month after scoring a goal in each of the Reds' three matches in August. On 9 September 2017, he was given a straight red card in the first half of a 5–0 loss to Manchester City for a high boot against goalkeeper Ederson, resulting in a three-match ban. Mané, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho made up a prolific attacking quartet dubbed the "Fab Four" and "Fab Three" after the mid-season exit of the latter.
On 14 February 2018, Mané scored his first hat-trick for Liverpool in a 5–0 away win against Porto in the round of 16 first leg of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League. In doing so, he became only the second player to score an away hat-trick for the club in Europe. Later, with a goal in the 3–0 win over AFC Bournemouth on 14 April, he overtook Demba Ba's record of 43 to become the highest scoring Senegalese in Premier League history.
On 26 May, during the 2018 UEFA Champions League final against Real Madrid, Mané scored Liverpool's equalising goal in a 3–1 defeat. In doing so, he became the first Senegalese player to score in the final of the competition. His goal was also his 10th for the campaign which saw Liverpool become the first team in history to have three players score 10+ goals in a single Champions League season, with Mané achieving the milestone alongside fellow forwards Salah and Firmino.
2018–19 season On 22 November 2018, Mané signed a new long-term deal with Liverpool. On 10 March 2019, Mané scored twice in a 4–2 win over Burnley, the second of which was his 50th competitive goal for Liverpool. His goals also saw him become only the fifth Liverpool player to score in six consecutive home Premier League appearances after Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Luis Suárez and Salah. Three days later, he scored twice more in a 3–1 win over Bayern Munich to help Liverpool progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In doing so, he became the club's record goalscorer away from home in the competition with seven goals to his name. During Liverpool's next match, he broke another of Ba's records to become the Senegalese player with the most goals scored in a single Premier League season, after scoring his 17th goal for the campaign in a 2–1 win over Fulham. On 20 April, he was one of six players nominated for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award alongside teammate Virgil van Dijk. He was also named in the PFA Team of the Year alongside Liverpool teammates, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andrew Robertson and Van Dijk.