Sadio Mané talks about his sacrifices for the National Team: “I asked the coach to make me sign a paper, if I die…”!

Anecdotes during his 10 years in the National Team, Sadio Mané is not lacking! The Lions striker confessed to the difficult times he experienced during the African Cup. He showed patriotism to do what is most important to him, to compete in the CAN.

Guest in the show 1 vs 1 hosted by Assane Thiam de Pro:Direct Soccer France, Sadio Mané recounted in detail these moments that marked him in the national team. In 2015 as in 2022, the striker had to choose between his health, the National Team and the club.

As Senegal prepared to take part in CAN 2015, Sadio Mané’s participation was compromised by an injury. He tells : « A lot of people don’t know about all the sacrifices we make. And I don’t like to talk about it. »

His appeal to the coach will be decisive for his first participation in the CAN

“I had injured myself and the next day I had to do the CT scan and it was complicated. Ronald Koeman was my coach at the time and he sent me a message to tell me that he had to see me after the medical check when I was supposed to come home afterwards. So after the scan, I had to go to the club”.

At the time, Sadio Mané was playing for Southampton. He was injured during a match against Arsenal, a thigh pain that almost cost him his place in the CAN. “So he (Koeman) told me, the situation is there. What are we going to do ? I said sorry to him! And he said Sadio you can’t go to CAN! It’s as if someone had thrown cold water on me. I told him that I know it’s complicated that I could not play the first game and the second too but it was important for me to represent my country. He looked at me, I almost even cried. We didn’t understand each other, we left”.

“I called Giresse who was my coach at the time. I told him, you have to speak with the Federation so that he puts pressure because the club did not want me to leave. But since Senegal had more rights over me at the time, so I had to leave to have my injury recorded. And I asked the coach to put my name on the list.

“My injury against Cape Verde (concussion)the most difficult moment »

Also during CAN 2021, Sadio Mané also experienced a similar situation. Injured in the game against Cape Verde, he put his life on the line to defend his homeland. The best player of this edition speaks exclusively about this difficult moment and the pressure from his former club Liverpool to prevent him from playing.

“When I got hurt, this concussion, it was a difficult moment. There were the Covid cases, the pitch conditions, the altitude for me, the issue was changing game times. But when I had this head injury, I was scared. But the worst is that Liverpool put the pressure on. They wrote a letter to FIFA that this injury requires 5 days off. The calculation made I should not play the quarter-finals. There was our national team doctor who had to follow the rules.

I was in the room, they told me that I shouldn’t play the quarter-finals, I immediately called the coach (Aliou Cissé) to tell him that it was out of the question! You have to put me in the Eleven because I’m going to play. He said OK, I will speak with the doctor. I called the president of the Federation Augustin Senghor and his vice-president Abdoulaye Sow, I told them we have to have a meeting. For me, it was important to play the CAN, I could even die there! We met for an hour and I told them make me a contract that I will sign to say if I die it’s my fault. In the end, I did not sign the paper. We did another scan on the day of the match to send to CAF to say that I am fit to play.

wiwsport.com

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