Sadió Mané is one of the most influential African forwards of recent times.

His recent nomination for the 2026 Ballon d'Or is a clear example of his continued presence amongst the elite of world football.

However, before reaching the very top, the Senegalese forward was at the heart of an incredible story alongside the manager who brought out the best in him: Jürgen Klopp.

First impressions are often misleading, even when they come from one of the most brilliant tactical minds in modern football.

In the summer of 2014, a young Mané, then playing for RB Salzburg in Austria, travelled to Germany with the hope of taking the definitive leap forward in his career.

Standing before him was Klopp, the charismatic manager who had restored Borussia Dortmund to the very elite of European football.

However, the meeting ended before it had even begun due to a hasty judgement.

Prejudice in Dortmund

Klopp was looking for a dynamic forward for his high-intensity system, but the Senegalese footballer’s attire and first impression completely diverted his attention.

Years later, in the official documentary about Mané’s life, the German manager himself recalled that encounter with a laugh.

“I remember the first time I saw Sadio. It was in Dortmund. He was a very young lad, his baseball cap was askew, and he had the blonde streak he still has today.

He looked like a rapper just starting out. And I remember thinking: ‘I’ve got no time for this’,” admitted the manager.

At the time, Klopp assumed that the attitude of a lad dressed in a scruffy, urban style wouldn’t fit in with the discipline of his dressing room.

“Our team at the time wasn’t that bad; I needed someone who could cope with not being an undisputed first-team regular from the off, someone I could develop. I didn’t see that in him at the time,” he admitted.

Regret and his breakthrough in the Premier League

That rejection did nothing to dampen Mané’s hunger.

The striker was making his mark at RB Salzburg and attracting the interest of Europe’s top clubs.

In 2014, he made the leap to the Premier League with Southampton, where he scored the fastest hat-trick in the competition’s history in just 2 minutes and 56 seconds.

Klopp, who took over as Liverpool manager in 2015, realised that his initial hunch had been completely wrong...

The manager would later admit his misjudgement whilst closely following the Senegalese player’s development.

“I’d say I usually get a good impression of people at first glance, but I was wrong. I followed the rest of his career and his success with RB Salzburg. At Southampton, he simply dominated everything,” he argued.

The call to Anfield: Making amends

When Klopp took charge of Liverpool in the autumn of 2015, rectifying that miscalculation became his top priority.

In the summer of 2016, Sadio Mané became the first major signing of the ‘Klopp era’ for £34 million.

This time there were no doubts or preconceptions about his style or personality: there was a certainty that they needed the Senegalese forward’s power to rewrite the club’s history.

The statistics of a Merseyside legend

His impact at Anfield was immediate and devastating. Adapting from day one to Klopp’s suffocating pressing system, Mané became a tireless winger, lethal in one-on-one situations and with a world-class nose for goal.

Over six unforgettable seasons, he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or four times and built up a record that secures his place in the ‘Reds’ hall of fame.

  • 269 competitive matches

  • 120 goals

  • 46 assists

  • 6 titles (2019 UEFA Champions League, 2020 Premier League, 2022 League Cup, 2022 FA Cup, 2019 UEFA Super Cup and 2019 Club World Cup)

As part of a lethal attacking trio alongside Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, Mané became the emotional and tactical driving force behind a team that restored Liverpool to the pinnacle of world football after decades of waiting.

The story between Klopp and the forward shows that in football, appearances can often be deceiving: what began with a snub over a crooked cap in Dortmund ended up cementing one of the most successful manager-player partnerships of recent times.