Sadio Mane was the hero for Senegal once again, but not for the reasons you would expect.
The former Liverpool and Bayern Munich forward claimed his second Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) crown on Sunday, with the Teranga Lions beating host nation Morocco in a final filled with controversy.
In stoppage time, Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw tried to usher his team off the field after Morocco were awarded a penalty in the 98th minute when defender El Hadji Malick Diouf brought down Brahim Diaz.
With the Senegal players back in the changing rooms, Mane was pictured entering and then ushering them back out onto the pitch, with the help of goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
Roughly 16 minutes after the spot-kick was awarded, Diaz’s Panenka penalty was easily caught by Mendy in a nightmare moment for one of the stars of the tournament.
At 0-0, the game went to extra time. Pape Gueye rocketed in a winner and sealed a dramatic title.
Mane, who has said this will be his last Afcon, goes out as a leader, having been presented with the captain’s armband by his team-mates before the trophy was lifted.
He said: “Football is something special, the world was watching, the world loves football, and I think football is a pleasure, so we have to give a good image for football.
“I think it would be crazy not play this game because what, the referee gave a penalty and we go out of the game? I think that would be the worst thing, especially in African football. I’d rather lose than have this kind of thing happen to our football.
“I think it’s really bad. Football should not stop for even ten minutes, but what can we do? We have to accept that we did, but the good thing is that we came back and we played the game and what happened happened.”
Former Nigeria forward Daniel Amokachi told BBC World Service: “Mane went the extra mile to get his team back, and it has paid off.
“What an ambassador for football he is. We know the kind of person he is off the pitch, and he knows what football is all about.”
Former Morocco international Hassan Kachloul said, “African football and world football were losing” until Mane intervened.
“What I like more than anything, the only player from the Senegalese team was Sadio Mane,” he told E4.
“That shows the great man he is. He went back to the dressing room and brought those players back. Mane was the man to bring them back on.”
Where it started for the ‘legend of Senegal’
For Mane, it all started in Bambali.
It was in south-west Senegal that he began playing football on its red earth-lined streets and sandy pitches, and where, aged 13, he watched Liverpool’s famous comeback against AC Milan in the Champions League final in 2005.
Since the,n he has gone on to lift both that prestigious trophy and the Premier League with the Reds, as well as claiming two Afcon titles with the Teranga Lions.
Mane scored the winning penalty against Egypt in the final of the 2021 edition and described it as “the best day of my life and the best trophy of my life”.
A stadium was named after him in the city of Sedhiou, just under 20km from his hometown, following that triumph as a recognition of his achievements.
Now a two-time champion and 33 years old, Mane has capped off his Afcon career on an ultimate high.
But Gueye says the squad aim to convince Mane, who he called “a legend of Senegal”, to change his mind about this being his final Afcon and remain with the team for at least the 2027 edition in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
“We’re going to try to keep him with us a bit longer, because he still has some great years to give,” the 26-year-old Villarreal man told BBC Afrique.
“I heard what he said and we’ll see what he decides to do. But we really want him to stay with us for many more years.”
A humble and charitable man
Mane, now plying his trade in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, may have a glittering trophy cabinet, but he has never forgotten his roots.
He won hearts in Bambali with charitable acts, pledging money to build a hospital and school, contributing to the construction of mosques, and providing funds to aid the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
He also sent 300 Liverpool shirts to his hometown before the Anfield club’s appearance in the 2018 Champions League final, which Real Madrid ultimately won 3-1.
“If Sadio comes here, he behaves very humbly, on a level with the people in Bambali,” Fode Boucar Dahaba, the president of a regional league, told BBC Sport Africa on a visit to the village a few years ago.
“He doesn’t want to stand out. The village gives all this love back to him.”
Family members describe him as someone who is “working for everybody” and a “good Muslim”.
That was evident during his time in England’s top flight, when he helped clean the toilets at a mosque in Toxteth after one of Liverpool’s victories.
“He wanted to remain discreet and wasn’t doing it for publicity,” said Abu Usamah Al-Tahabi, the imam at Al Rahma Mosque.
“He’s not a person looking for fanfare. There’s no arrogance.”
Senegal centre-back Moussa Niakhate hailed Mane as “an incredible man” in the lead-up to the final.
“I won’t have enough time to describe what Sadio represents for African football, and more particularly for the Senegalese people,” he added.
Senegal ‘expect’ contributions from Mane
Mane has over 120 caps and is his country’s record goalscorer with 53 goals.
He has so often been the hero on the pitch in recent years, and he intends to play at the World Cup later this year, where more great memories could be made.
He had an early penalty kick saved in the first half of the 2021 Afcon final, but stepped up again to decide the shootout against Egypt in Yaounde.
A little over a month later, he settled their 2022 Fifa World Cup play-off against the Pharaohs in the same way – after that match also went the distance – although he ultimately missed out on the tournament in Qatar through injury.
He has mainly been a creative force at this year’s Afcon finals, but his 78th-minute strike against Egypt, who were once again on the receiving end of Mane’s magic, proved enough to send the Teranga Lions through to the final.
“That’s what we expect from him,” midfielder Idrissa Gana Gueye told the BBC World Service after his decisive intervention in Tangier on Wednesday.
“[He is] a big player, and he needs to show it in big games. He showed it again.”
‘We would like to keep him for as long as possible’
Mane may have a humble demeanour and does not captain Senegal, but when he speaks, his team-mates take note.
“In his pre-match speech [before playing Egypt], he motivated all of us,” Pape Gueye said.
“He had the right words to make sure we went into the match fully focused.
“He has the experience of big matches, so he also knows how to calm us down. You can see it a lot in his gestures – he tells us to stay calm, even after we score or if we concede a goal.”
Mane won the vast majority of his international caps under Aliou Cisse, who was in charge of the West Africans from 2015 to 2024, but current coach Pape Thiaw is understandably keen for his talisman to remain part of the national set-up.
“I think he made his decision in the heat of the moment, and the country does not agree, and I, as coach of the national team, do not agree at all,” Thiaw said.
“We would like to keep him for as long as possible.”
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