Sadio Mané was described by Jürgen Klopp as “one of Liverpool’s best players” after his transfer to Bayern Munich was confirmed. The striker, who said he had no doubt he was making the right move, has joined for £ 27.5m guaranteed and the fee could rise to £ 35.1m with supplements.
“It’s a big time: it doesn’t make sense for anyone to try to pretend otherwise,” Klopp said. “One of Liverpool’s biggest players is leaving and we have to recognize how important that is.”
Mané won a Champions League, the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup, the Super Cup and the Club World Cup during his six seasons at Anfield and Darwin Núñez has been bought by Benfica in a deal worth up to £ 85 million to help replace it.
“He’s leaving with our gratitude and our love,” said the Liverpool coach. “It simply came to our notice then. And yes, he is at a time when he is one of the best players in world football. But we must not dwell on what we now lose, but celebrate what we were privileged to have. The goals he scored, the trophies he won; a legend, no doubt, but also a modern Liverpool icon. “
Mané, who has a year left in his Liverpool career, said on his new club’s website: “I am very happy to finally be with FC Bayern in Munich. We had a lot of talks and I felt the great interest of this great club from the beginning, so I had no doubts from the beginning. This is the right time for this challenge. I want to achieve a lot with this club, also internationally ”.
The Senegal striker arrives at Bayern with his top scorer, Robert Lewandowski, determined to leave for Barcelona and arouses the interest of other clubs such as Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain. Bayern sports board member Hasan Salihamidzic reiterated on Wednesday that the Pole had a contract until 2023 and said he was expected for pre-season training on July 12th.
Salihamidzic stressed why Bayern switched to Mané. “A top international star is coming to FC Bayern, which has left its mark on world football,” he said. “We are proud to have taken him to Munich. Sadio made it clear from the first minute of our talks that he now wanted to play for FC Bayern. Everyone knows his excellent technical qualities as well as his incredible mentality.”
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Salihamidzic said the transfer “shows that he and our club have big goals”. Bayern won a tenth consecutive Bundesliga title in April, but failed to make it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the second consecutive season.
Mané, who has a contract until 2025, said on the Liverpool website: “Obviously it’s weird, very, very weird, to stop being a Liverpool player. But of course I had a great time, a amazing time.We earned a lot.My life is always [about a] challenge and when he arrived I told the club I wanted to leave ”.