Liverpool’s top star Sadio Mané to Bayern – but as a replacement for Serge Gnabry and not for Robert Lewandowski? It sounds like a transfer utopia, but now the Senegalese announces a special response after the Champions League final. The English newspapers speculate wildly in all directions.
It’s not like Sadio Mané is silent on the Bayern rumours. Liverpool’s star striker, courted by Munich, likes to talk a lot, mostly with a mischievous smile, he enjoys the attention, but he says: little. He wants to give the “best answer” to all the transfer questions on the night after the Champions League final against Real Madrid on Saturday (9 p.m. / ZDF and DAZN and in the live ticker on ntv.de), “promise” – and this answer will be “special”.
Aha. What that means? The “Guardian” believes that Munich can make up their king transfer. The well-known newspaper rated Mané’s statement as the “biggest indication” so far of his whereabouts in Liverpool, where he has a contract until 2023. The boulevard, on the other hand, suspects betrayal: “Mané speaks…” was the headline in the “Mirror”, adding yellow capital letters: “… with Bayern”.
According to the “Bild” newspaper, these talks should only be intensified after the final. “It’s all about the Mané”, the “Daily Star” played on words, it’s all about the money. FC Bayern is reportedly ready to pay 30 million euros for the 30-year-old, Jürgen Klopp’s Reds allegedly want 50 million for the man who Real and Paris St. Germain are also supposed to be courting.
Mané, who shot Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup, is not planned in Munich as a replacement for world footballer Robert Lewandowski, who is still willing to change. He has international class as a scorer, which is underlined by 120 goals in 268 competitive games for Liverpool. But he is more at home on the wing – and thus an alternative to Serge Gnabry, who has so far rejected an improved offer from Bayern to extend his contract, which also ends in 2023.
Practical: Mané and Gnabry have the same advisor with whom the Munich sports director Hasan Salihamidžić was spotted on Mallorca. Does one come because the other goes? “I’ll tell you everything you want to hear,” said Mané – but only after the final: “Come back on Saturday and I’ll answer, I promise.” A declaration of loyalty sounds different. Something like this: “I thank God I’m here,” said Mané’s fellow striker Roberto Firmino, whose contract also ends in 2023, “I want to stay.”
And Mane? Wait and see, said the great Munich football philosopher Thomas Müller, who can smile at least as mischievously as his possible new teammate. “If every rumor ends up reaching us,” said Müller with a smile, “then we’d have a squad of 45 men every year.”