Senegal's Superhero

Sadio Mané is as renowned for his skill on the pitch as he is for charity work in his home country

- By Nasifa Sulaiman

He's been called the nicest guy in football, a pay-it-forward kind of person who uses the riches he’s made in top-flight soccer to help uplift the country where he grew up.

“Why would I want 10 Ferraris, 20 diamond watches or two planes?” Sadio Mané says. “What will these objects do for me and the world?”

The 29-year-old Liverpool and Senegal star has donated millions to help his people – and the mayor of the region where he was born recently honoured him by naming a stadium after him.

Mané deserves the honour for helping to put Senegal on the map, says Abdoulaye Diop, the first citizen of Sedhiou, an area in the south of Senegal.

The striker with the golden boot became a national hero when he scored the winning goal in the recent Afcon final in a tense penalty shootout between Senegal and Egypt. His goal earned the Lions of Teranga their first Afcon trophy and Mané was named most outstanding player of the tournament.

He admits it was a big blow for him when he missed the first penalty early in the game. “But my teammates came to me and said, ‘Sadio, we lose together and we win together. We know you. You have done too much for us – keep on going’,” he says.

And he did, slamming the ball into the bottom corner of the net to seal his team’s 4-2 victory. Yet he insists that teamwork brought the trophy home.

“The trophy belongs to the whole Senegal team. Everyone deserves it,” he says.