Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was happy he was able to look beyond his initial impression of Sadio Mane and sign off on the Reds' move for the Senegal star.
Mane joined Liverpool from Southampton in 2016 and went on to score more than 100 goals for the Anfield club, His performances helped Klopp's team end their long wait for a Premier League title in 2020, while also helping deliver Champions League and Club World Cup titles.
It could easily have gone very differently, though. Klopp was impressed by Mane's performances on the south coast but had some reservations over the former Red Bull Salzburg star.
Since leaving Liverpool in 2022, Mane spent a year with Bayern Munich before completing a high-profile switch to Al-Nassr. All of that was made possible by his Liverpool exploits, though, and Mirror Football has looked back at the conversations which almost scuppered that spell before it even began.
"I remember my first encounter with Sadio. It was in Dortmund," Klopp said during the Made in Senegal documentary about Mane, which aired in 2020. "There was a really young guy sitting there. His baseball cap was askew, the blond streak he still has today. He looked like a rapper just starting out. I thought, 'I don't have time for this.'
"Our team back then really wasn't bad. I needed someone who could handle not being a starter at the very beginning, someone I could develop.
"I'd say I have a pretty good feeling for people, but was I wrong. I followed his further career and continuing success in Salzburg. In Southampton, he just dominated."
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Klopp considered it a "win-win" to sign Mane in 2016, with both men wanting to work with one another at that point. Results soon followed, with Mane scoring in the 2018 Champions League final defeat against Real Madrid and hitting 26 goals in all competitions the following season as the Reds went one better in Europe.
"He’s a very special manager," Mane said of Klopp shortly after the 2019 victory over Tottenham in Madrid. "He has a lot of qualities and distinctive characteristics, but what really struck me is that he’s a really, really nice guy outside of football. His human side touched me, and that’s really rare to find someone like that, especially in football.
“He’s a coach who loves his players, he’s there for them," added Mane, who explained he'd wanted to join Klopp at Dortmund when still on Salzburg's books. "At the same time, he gives them responsibilities.
"We, the players, are ready to do anything for him! We give everything on the pitch for him, whether it’s in training or in a game, we give our all. He’s a manager who makes you want to go to war.”
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Mane ended his Liverpool career with 120 goals in 269 appearances - ninth in their all-time rankings ahead of the likes of Kevin Keegan and Ian St John. Ninety of those goals came in the Premier League, with only 25 players in the history of the competition scoring more for a single club.
Things went less well in Munich, with just seven league goals in his one Bundesliga season. Only one of those seven arrived after the injury which kept him out of the World Cup, denying him the opportunity to follow his Africa Cup of Nations triumph with another strong tournament run.
"It was kind of sad," Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel said as Mane prepared to leave for Saudi Arabia. "We had a long hug but we had both a smile on our faces and we assured ourselves to keep the good relationship. It's not personal from his side>
"I can totally understand that he feels hurt. I feel also not happy if things like this happen. We didn't bring it to the full potential, which is my job also and my responsibility. So it's always kind of a sad moment but in this particular situation it was the best solution to untie the knot."
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The goals have returned at Al-Nassr, with eight in 18 league outings leaving the team second in the table just past the halfway point in the season He is also attempting to mastermind another AFCON win for his country, which began with a comfortable victory over Gambia in the opening group game.
Whatever he does from now until the end of his career, though, those six years at Liverpool will remain a high point. And everyone there will be grateful Klopp's first impression didn't stick.
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