Highlights: Long presented as rivals when they played together in the jersey of Liverpool FC, Sadio Mané and Mohammed Salah now play for different teams. The Senegalese left the banks of the Mersey to join southern Germany and Bayern Munich. The Egyptian left the Bundesliga after a knee injury deprived him of the World Cup in Qatar with the Lions of Teranga. The two wingers have won everything in five seasons under the tunic of LiverpoolFC and martyred the defenses of England and Europe.

Long presented as rivals when they played together in the jersey of Liverpool FC, Sadio Mané and Mohammed Salah are now separated after the departure this summer of the first named to Bayern...

Football: Former Liverpool teammates, Salah and Mane walk alone

Long presented as rivals when they played together in the jersey of Liverpool FC, Sadio Mané and Mohammed Salah now play for different teams. And for this first season without the other, the Senegalese as the Egyptian live a gloomy year, for different reasons. AFP - KHALED DESOUKI

Text by: Zhifan Liu Follow

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Long presented as rivals when they played together in the jersey of Liverpool FC, Sadio Mané and Mohammed Salah are now separated after the departure this summer of the first named to Bayern Munich. And for this first season without the other, the Senegalese as the Egyptian live a gloomy year, for different reasons.

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On the left, Sadio Mané, 30. On the right, on the other side of the Reds' attacking front, Mohamed Salah, also 30 spring. Supported by Brazilian Roberto Firmino, the two wingers have won everything in five seasons under the tunic of Liverpool FC and martyred the defenses of England and Europe. Under the leadership of Jürgen Klopp, the Senegalese and Egyptian added a sixth Champions League to the Liverpool club's trophy room. Above all, they finally put an end to the curse that befell the northern English city, by winning the Premier League, exactly thirty years after Liverpool's last domestic title.

Injury and criticism

After yet another season in the same colours, culminating in a frustrating Champions League final against Real Madrid in Saint-Denis, the duo separated in the summer of 2022. The Senegalese left the banks of the Mersey to join southern Germany and Bayern Munich. There, the former Salzburg player returned to a championship that revealed him between 2012 and 2014.

But the reunion was marred by a knee that failed in November during a Bundesliga tie against Werder Bremen. A stop for the neo-Munich (6 goals, 4 assists in the league) and which deprived him of the World Cup in Qatar with the Lions of Teranga. Back in time for the knockout stages of the Champions League against PSG, the second of the Ballon d'Or 2022 lived the double confrontation from the bench. He only found the starting eleven of Bayern, Saturday, during the victory of his family on the lawn of Freiburg.

It's been quite a ride! Thank you for all the good times and I wish you all the best in your new adventure! You will be missed by all of us. pic.twitter.com/zndPry1mfg

— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) June 22, 2022

For his part, orphaned by his counterpart on the left, Mohamed Salah wanders in a broken team, which has little to play for in this end of the season and which seems at the end of the cycle. Eighth in the Premier League, Liverpool are already relegated to 12 points behind the Big Four and a place in the Champions League next season. The left-hander continues to present honorable statistics with 13 goals and 7 assists in the league. But Salah did not escape criticism either, he who remains in particular on two missed penalties, shot out of frame. And, for the first time this season, against Chelsea last weekend, he was left on the bench at the start of the game.

Continental rivalry

For a long time, the British press wanted to oppose the Senegalese and the Egyptian, relaying rumors of jealousy and rivalry between Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah. Rumors brushed aside by the Egyptian: "If we talk about rivalry between us, selfishness, I totally disagree," he said in June 2022 in France Football. I don't know where it comes from. I have a great relationship with Sadio, we exchange normally, we sit side by side in the dressing room. Our interest is that Liverpool win every game, so we try to pass the ball to each other to score as many goals as possible."

Same story on the side of Sadio Mané. "We have a good relationship, we text each other. I think the media is always trying to make things worse," he said, after being named African Player of the Year 2022 ahead of the Egyptian. In addition to their proximity in the Reds' dressing room, Mane and Salah, both Muslims, also shared the same place of worship in the city of Liverpool.

If the rivalry between the two wingers did take place, it took place outside British territory, during decisive international meetings between Mané's Senegal and Salah's Egypt. Each time, it was the former Messin who came out with honors, gleaning a ticket for the World Cup in Qatar and winning, above all, the first African Cup of Nations of the Lions of Teranga. Back in Liverpool, Sadio Mané, will refuse any celebration ceremony at Anfield, out of respect for his teammate. A sign that their duels on the African scene have not affected the friendship between the two players.

► Read also: CAN 2022: Mohamed Salah-Sadio Mané, from English duo to African duel

Football: Former Liverpool teammates, Salah and Mane walk alone

Football: Former Liverpool teammates, Salah and Mane walk alone

Injury and criticism

Continental rivalry

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