Sadio Mane has revealed a phone call from Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in the 11th hour prevented him from joining Manchester United in 2016.
The Senegalese international moved to Anfield from Southampton in the same summer where he was heavily linked with Man United and he has now explained how close he actually was to joining the Reds’ bitter rivals.
Speaking to Robbie Fowler in an exclusive interview for the Mirror, Mane admitted he even met up with former United manager Louis van Gaal ahead of a switch to Old Trafford.
Yes, I was really, really close because I even met up with them. So I was coming, I was there and I spoke with the boss [Louis van Gaal] who was there before. They made an offer, but in the same week, Klopp called me. He said: ‘I think it’s the right club. The right coach for me, and I think it’s better that I go to Liverpool’. For me, I think it was the right time as well. I said, ‘I am going to Liverpool.’
The 27-year-old has since scored 59 goals in 122 appearances over three seasons under Klopp at Liverpool as he’s helped the club reach two consecutive Champions League Finals.
He’ll be looking to net goal number 60 in Madrid later today against Tottenham Hotspur and deliver the club’s sixth European crown.
Mane’s been one of Liverpool’s best players in a historic season where the club claimed 97 Premier League points and still finished 2nd, but how different it could’ve been if Klopp didn’t make that phone call.
