Sadio Mane is the 2022 African Footballer of the Year
Sadio Mane is the 2022 African Footballer of the Year. Sadio Mane is the eighth player to have received the African Footballer of the Year award after winning it twice.
At the Confederation of African Football’s awards event on Thursday in Rabat, Morocco, the Senegal captain was named the 2022 winner.
Mane was in Morocco to receive his award personally less than a day after making his Bayern debut there.
While playing for English club Liverpool, the 30-year-old forward player won the title for the first time in 2019. He just committed to German powerhouse Bayern Munich for three years.
“I am tremendously honored and highly happy to earn this award again,” Mane said on Thursday.
Many thanks to my teachers, teammates on the club and varsity teams, and friends who helped me through the difficult times.
“I dedicate this honor to Senegalese youth. I’m speechless because I’m so overcome with emotion, he continued.
Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala defeated Perpetua Nkwocha to win the Women’s Player of the Year title for a record-breaking fifth time.
Due to an injury, the 27-year-old Barcelona attacker was compelled to miss the current Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
The event was hosted by Cameroonian actress and broadcaster Sophy Aiida and Moroccan journalist Jalal Bouzrara, and featured musical performances by Nigerian superstar Tiwa Savage and Ivorian supergroup Magic System.
Mane flew across the Atlantic after converting a penalty for his new team in a 6-2 preseason friendly win over DC United in Washington on Wednesday to accept the trophy in the Moroccan capital of Rabat.
He defeated Egyptian Mohamed Salah, a former teammate at Liverpool, and Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
Mane in Liverpool
Liverpool won the FA Cup and English League Cup last season, finished second in the Premier League and the Champions League, thanks in large part to Mane and Salah.
Mane chose to depart, with Bayern allegedly paying an initial 32 million euros ($32.5m) that may climb to 41 million euros ($41.7m) while Salah signed a new contract at Anfield.
In February, when the final in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, went scoreless, Mane converted the crucial fifth penalty to earn Senegal a 4-2 shootout win against Egypt and their first Africa Cup of Nations trophy.
After a 1-1 aggregate tie, Mane defeated Egypt in a shootout to win the match a month later in a World Cup playoff close to Dakar, Senegal.
Early Life
Mane, who was up in a town around 250 miles (400 km) from Dakar, caught Metz’s eye after joining the Generation Foot team, a local second-tier club.
After making a name for himself in Salzburg, Mane transferred to Southampton, where he had successes like scoring a record-breaking hat-trick in the Premier League in just 176 seconds against Aston Villa.
The Senegalese joined Liverpool in the middle of 2016, and together with Brazilian Roberto Firmino and Egyptian Salah, they finally created a dangerous front three.
As Sadio left for Bayern, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said, “My only criticism of Sadio is that maybe at times he is the only one not to recognise precisely how brilliant he is.”