Ballon d'Or: Senegalese Sadio Mané on the second step of the podium
Senegalese Sadio Mané with the Liverpool shirt.
Carl Recine/Reuters
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
2 mins
After the illustrious George Weah, Ballon d'Or in 1995, no other African player had managed to get on the podium.
For this new classification which crowns the Frenchman Karim Benzema, the Senegalese Sadio Mané offers himself the second place.
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Bought for 32 million euros by Bayern Munich, Sadio Mané landed in Germany last summer after six seasons with Liverpool.
But it is for his performances with the English club that he is rewarded this Monday, October 17.
51 matches in all competitions
During the 2020-2021 season with the Reds, Sadio Mané scored 23 goals and delivered 5 assists in 51 games in all competitions.
He played in the Champions League final against Real Madrid, and finished second in the league behind Manchester City.
Considered one of the best players in the history of the Senegal national team, he also won the African Cup of Nations in Cameroon earlier this year for his second consecutive final, after moving to side of the title in 2019 in Egypt.
He was named by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) the best player in the competition and scored the winning penalty in the final against Egypt.
The native of Bambali, who remained at the foot of the Ballon d'Or podium in 2019, also allowed the qualification of the Teranga Lions for the next world championship in Qatar.
In June, during the first match against Benin, at the Abdoulaye Wade stadium in Diamniadio, counting for the qualifying phase of the 2023 African Cup of Nations, Mané scored three goals during the match, bringing his total to 32 with the Lions of Teranga.
He thus overtakes Henri Camara who until then held the record for goals scored in the selection.
He beat the Egypt of his ex-teammate Mohamed Salah in the play-off.
In 2022, as in 2019, he was once again named Best African Player by CAF.
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