Sadio Mané, a Senegalese player, has joined Saudi Arabia club Al Nassr after a season with FC Bayern. Nassr announced the signing of the 31-year-old forward on messaging site X, formerly known as Twitter.
According to Sky News, the former Liverpool forward will earn roughly $170 million if the transaction is completed. According to Reuters, Saudi spent $43.85 million for the 31-year-old, who has two years remaining on his deal with Bayern.
According to TalkSports, he will make roughly $823,000 per week and $43 million per year tax-free at Al Nassr. His contract makes him the highest-paid Sub-Saharan African player and one of the highest-paid players in the world.
The highest-paid African footballer is Algerian Riyad Mahrez, who just transferred to Al-Hali in the Saudi Pro-League. He earns roughly £865,000 ($1000,000) per week. Mane is now the world’s highest-paid black African player.
Mane joins Bayern following a stellar career at Liverpool, where he scored 120 goals in 269 appearances. During his six-year tenure with Liverpool, he also won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, and Club World Cup.
After his contract with the Merseyside club expired, he moved to Bayern, but he failed to impress the German champions, scoring only 12 goals. His stay was complicated when he clashed with teammate Leroy Sane and punched the German winger. For the incident, he was suspended and fined.
“We want to thank Sadio Mane for the past season,” Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen told the club website. “It certainly hasn’t been an easy year for him, suffering an injury just before the World Cup and missing out on participation with Senegal, whom he had earlier led to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations triumph and World Cup qualification.
“Due to the long downtime, he wasn’t able to contribute as much to FC Bayern as we and he himself had hoped. That’s why we decided together that he should start a new chapter in his career and make a fresh start at another club.”
Christiano Ronaldo, who joined the Suadi club last year, will now play alongside the two-time African Footballer of the Year. Aside from Ronaldo and Mane, they also have Inter Milan and Lens midfielders Marcelo Brozovic and Seko Fofana. Alex Telles was also signed from Manchester United.