It was one, if not the biggest transfer of the 2022 summer transfer window. Winner of the African Cup of Nations with Senegal and Champions League finalist with Liverpool, Sadio Mané arrived at Bayern Munich in as a big star. Having to compensate for the loss of Robert Lewandowski who left for FC Barcelona, the former Salzburg and Southampton presented himself as the new headliner of Bayern Munich. While the first part of the season remained encouraging, things went downhill at the end of autumn. Injured in November and forfeited for the 2022 World Cup, he only returned to competition at the end of February and will never have managed to regain an indisputable starting role. It is therefore with 12 goals and 6 offerings in 38 matches that his first and only Bavarian season ended.
The Sané/Mané scandal at a tipping point
Indeed, a few weeks after the end of the season, the exit door was designated for him by Thomas Tuchel and he was sold to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia for 30 million euros. An early eviction for Sadio Mané whose Bavarian adventure will have turned into a fiasco. Invited to respond on the airwaves of RMC Sports in the show of After Football, Bacary Cissé, adviser to Sadio Mané took the floor to discuss the situation of his foal. He notably pointed to the episode between Leroy Sané and Sadio Mané. On the side of the Senegalese press, Leroy Sané would have uttered a racist insult to Sadio Mané and on the side of the German press, it would not have happened and Sadio Mané would have physically attacked Leroy Sané. Two versions which therefore oppose each other and which created a first break according to Bacary Cissé.
“If Bayern hadn’t taken up the cause for Leroy Sané, things wouldn’t have gotten worse. If Bayern Munich hadn’t asked to sanction Sadio for the next three matches, it wouldn’t have happened like this. If Bayern hadn’t asked Tuchel to go to the coal to tell Sadio that he was going behind Gnabry and Sané, it wouldn’t have happened like this. He must be judged on the pitch, but not for financial considerations. If Sadio Mané’s skin color bothered Leroy Sané, it also bothered the leaders of Bayern, regarding his salary. thus released the adviser of Sadio Mané. With a salary of 22 million euros, Sadio Mané was one of the highest salaries of the Bavarian club (22 million euros a year, editor’s note) and that did not happen at Bayern Munich after a season. complicated from the player. This therefore prompted the Bavarian club to sell him this summer.
The management takes it for its rank
While Thomas Tuchel publicly announced that he did not want to count on the player, the transfer of Sadio Mané to Al-Nassr became clearer in the following days. Nevertheless for Bacary Cissé, it was not the German coach who pushed to separate from the winner of the last African Cup of Nations: “Bayern is managed by old men in the stands. It was not Tuchel who wanted to make Sadio leave, but the leaders. Strong words towards the Bavarian microcosm and Bacary Cissé added a layer on the direction of the Rekordmeister: “Bayern leaders have not been honest with themselves. They had leaked the fact that even with an offer of 20 million euros they were going to let Sadio Mané go, but when the boy returned from Senegal for the preparation, after three or four days they saw him come back with other provisions and it rose to 30 million euros.
For the latter, the reason for the departure of Sadio Mané is not linked to the performance of the latter, but to the mentality of the leaders. “Sadio was not sanctioned sportingly at Bayern, but it was his salary that bothered the Germans. They did not understand that an African would come and overtake everyone in terms of salary. In the history of the Bundesliga, they have never paid that. Moreover Bacary Cissé stressed the fact that the Senegalese nationality of Sadio Mané would have harmed him: “It is not up to Sadio Mané to prove to the Germans that he is Sadio Mané. He did everything he had to do. No gifts were given to him. He lived through the most difficult moments of his career. The leaders of Bayern have been very ungrateful. They didn’t play the game sportingly, but it’s the client’s face that they don’t like. They were paying a lot of money to an African and it hurt their hearts. But this money he did not steal. From his first contact with Bayern, he gave his word to the leaders. A sharp position that will not fail to have its echo in Bavaria…
