NEW DELHI: Sadio Mane will cement his status as one of the all-time great African players if he can lead Senegal to victory against host Morocco in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final — a game he has said will be his farewell to the tournament.
Former Liverpool star Mane turns 34 in April and has played over 120 times for his country, going back to a debut against Morocco shortly after his 20th birthday in 2012.
The high point of his international career came in February 2022, when he starred as the Lions of Teranga beat Egypt on penalties in the AFCON final in Yaounde.
Having missed a penalty during normal time that night, he stepped up to score the decisive kick in the shootout, and Senegal — World Cup quarterfinalist in 2002 — was the African champion for the first time.
A huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of the boy from a small town on the banks of the Casamance River in southern Senegal.
“Before I won the Africa Cup, sometimes I played badly because of the pressure,” Mane admitted in a recent interview for the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast as he opened up on the significance of that victory.
“People in Europe love their national team, but some people love their club more -- Senegal is the opposite.
“That is why there is this big pressure, so I just had to win this. It was really important.”
There have also been plenty of lows for the two-time African footballer of the year, including the defeat in the final against Algeria in Cairo in 2019 and missing the 2022 World Cup with injury. Agencies
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