Bayern Munich new signing, Sadio Mane, was Thursday night in Rabat, Morocco, named African Player of the Year at the CAF Awards.
Mane deserves his diadem having captained Senegal to their first ever African Cup of Nations (AFCON) victory.
After leading Senegal to win the AFCON early this year, much of the world, from Africa to Europe, especially England, where Mane laced his power-packed boot for Liverpool football club, celebrated. The spring of emotion was not for Senegal breaking a jinx by winning AFCON for the first time. It’s not for Aliou Cisse, the sprightly Senegalese coach who also played good football in his younger days. It’s was for one special player, the Overall Best Player of the Tournament, Sadio Mane.
Mane is the simple guy with a simple name whose football is a rich textbook of grit, flair, shilly-shally shimmies, turbo-tackles and feline speed. Mane has many fans for his discipline and ferocious devotion to football. But global respect for this African Ambassador in England and now Germany shot to the heavens a couple of years back.
Mane has been singled out by passionate global fan base for his off-field sense of humanity and simplicity. Mane does not flaunt his wealth. He’s described as one of the top EPL players you could still find using a regular car. Yet, he is reputed as one of the top 10 earners in his club, earning £11 per minute, £645 per hour, £15,485 per day and over £108,000 per week.
True, Mane was born poor, grew up poor in his Bambali town of Senegal, played kiddies’ football barefooted or in torn boots and over-size jersey before playing his way into Generation Foot Academy from where scouts ferreted him to Metz in France. That move to France in 2011 triggered a whirlwind of beautiful episodes in his soccer career, and culminated in his move to Liverpool.
Yes, Mane was born poor, but poverty was not born in him. Humility was. Humanity was and it is bearing fruits of philanthropy.
He once said in a media interview: “Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world?” Mane said in 2019, as reported by AS.
“I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people.
“I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy.
“I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me”.
As Africa’s Best Player at AFCON, – he played like a man possessed. He is still living a simple life, doing good, lifting humanity out of poverty, feeding the poor, planting hope and mentoring hordes of future champions. He’s a true African legend, a worthy African Ambassador and a living role model for other Africans, who, thrust to fame and fortune by Providence, have abandoned home. Mane never left home. He lives in England, Germany, he lives in Africa, in Senegal, among the poor. In fact, he lives in the hearts of people and on this special moment in his life, nothing but well-wishes for a man who would rather take the shame for others to get the glory.
It was a clean sweep for Senegal on Thursday in Rabat as national team captain and new Bayern Munich signing Sadio Mane was named African Player of the Year.
National team head coach Aliou Cisse was named Coach of the Year, after leading his team to their first continental title and another FIFA World Cup qualification.
Pape Matar Sarr, an 18-year-old midfielder with English Premier League clubside Tottenham Hotspur, was also named the Young Player of the Year.
