Speaking in an interview with France Football, Liverpool and Senegal attacker Sadio Mané discussed an array of topics including what AFCON means to him and his relationship with his mother.
On his mother:
Nobody liked football in my family. My mother would chase me every time she saw me playing football. I had to leave the shadow of the palaver tree to find myself in full sunshine. It was hard for me because I felt a bit lonely. I did not understand why I was not allowed to live my dream… In the village, when I did something bad, my mother or my uncle would slap me. I was hit a fair few times because, for example, I wouldn’t go to school. Sometimes I would come home accompanied with a friend because I knew that I risked being beaten for not going to school. But that was part of my upbringing. Thanks to that, I was never lost. I thank my mother everyday for that.
On AFCON:
It is up to us to achieve something great. Of course we are one of the favourites, we cannot hide from that. But this standing is not enough to go all the way… Winning with my country, which has never won the Africa Cup of Nations, that would be magnificent. I am even ready to swap a Champions’ League to win an Africa Cup of Nations. The return to Dakar would be extraordinary. This is my biggest and most crazy dream.
