King of Africa in every possible sense: Sadio Mane's path to historic victory
He grew up in a remote village even in Senegalese terms, and made his way to the top against all odds, literally.
No player represents the continent better than the Liverpool star, and no one deserves to bring Senegal the first historic championship in its history
Michael Yochin
07/02/2022
Monday, 07 February 2022, 10:00
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Summary: Chelsea - Liverpool 2: 2 (Sport 1)
Of the 14 Senegalese who participated in the African Championship final yesterday, seven were born in France, four in the capital Dakar, and two more in the former capital San Louis.
Their path has not been easy, of course, and everyone is now familiar with the story of goalkeeper Edouard Mandy who signed with the Employment Bureau at the age of 23, but they had a variety of options to learn football and succeed.
Only one player was not at all able to be accepted to the football academy, or even play as a child on a field with green grass ... in fact, grass of some color.
His name is Sadio Mana, and yesterday he was not only crowned the outstanding player in the African Championship.
He brought to his country the first degree in its history.
If you look at a map of Senegal, and there is a reasonable basis that you have never done so, you will see that Gambia goes into it like a worm into an apple.
The greater part of the country is located north of the Gambia, and is mostly desert.
This is where all the big cities are concentrated, and that is where the regime invests resources in development.
The area south of Gambia is wooded and wild, completely neglected.
Its main cities are also small and poor, and the villages are not relevant at all from the point of view of the authorities.
In Bali, Mana's village, does not appear on Wikipedia at all.
It has no value.
To get there, you have to take a boat ride on the river, or prefer a semi-paved mud road from the nearest airport, which is located in Ziginshore - a matter of a three-hour drive.
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Fled the village without telling the family
Sadio has always loved football, but his parents made sure to tell him it was a complete waste of time, because no one - really no one - has ever been able to leave Bambali and become a footballer.
This thought was so absurd and delusional that they even forbade the child to dream in that direction.
He was 10 when Senegal stunned the world at its first World Cup in 2002, defeating France 0-1 in the opening game from a goal by the late Papa Buba Diop, and galloping to the quarter-finals.
He saw al-Haji Diouf do in his characteristic impudence wonderful things with the ball on the big stage.
He saw how proud this show had brought to his village, and longed to follow in the footsteps of the heroes, but his family told him he was an idiot.
So he ran away.
Mana ran away at the age of 15, literally, and walked for long hours until one could take a bus, then another bus, then another, and finally get to Dakar.
No one knew about the plan, except for one good friend, a little older than him, who understood his heart and agreed to lend him some money for the trip.
It was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best investment in the history of the Senegalese nation - this money was turned into a huge fortune by Mana, and he now funds the construction of schools, hospitals and football pitches in his home province, as well as just buying food and clothing for the needy.
There was no generous donor in Senegal like the Liverpool star.
"I do not need luxury cars, diamonds and planes. There is no use in them. I live very well, and I want to help others because I am capable," he says.
For a moment he did not lose touch with reality.
Sadio Mane (Photo: Reuters)
The complete opposite of al-Haji Diouf
The escape was only a first step to fame.
In Sadio's first tests, there were hundreds of children - most of them from Dakar, with proper football clothes.
Mana came with non-sporty pants and torn shoes that were somehow attached with wire so they would not fall apart while running.
Other boys laughed at him, and the coaches also gave him weird looks and wondered what the hell this ridiculous guy was doing there.
After seeing him dribble, they realized he was not that ridiculous and gave him a chance.
"And so began my adventure," Mana concluded at the time.
Thus he became the first footballer in the history of Bambali, and the whole region.
It will be difficult to find a better example of a person who follows the dream against all odds, under impossible conditions, just because he believed in himself to the end.
It will also be difficult to find a better example of a person who fulfilled the big dream and did not lose touch with reality.
The urine did not rise to his head even for a moment, and here his story differs 180 degrees from the great idol Diop.
When the cunning Senegalese star arrived in Liverpool in 2002, he was completely off the rails, and his immense talent went down the drain.
When Mana came to Liverpool in 2016, he started investing in work even more, if at all possible.
Went off the rails.
Dioping (Photo: Reuters)
Until yesterday the team was cursed
With his red team he has already reached all the peaks. He won the Champions League in 2019, so he definitely deserved the title of player of the year in the world, and was also a very senior partner in the historic championship in 2020 which interrupted a 30-year drought. In this arena, he has nothing more to prove - one can only try to win these titles again, and the chances of that are not negligible in the coming seasons. But in the team .... here the plot was already different, and there was a feeling that time was running out.
The team's previous record achievement on the continent, before Mana's ascent, was also in 2002.
A few months before the trip to the World Cup, Senegal qualified for the African Championship final, losing there on penalties to Cameroon after a nerve-wracking 0-0 draw.
Diouf then missed from the penalty spot, but the biggest and most fateful miss was that of Elio Sisa, the leader and captain, who was supposed to swing the coveted trophy, and instead received only grief and tears.
Eventually, just at the perfect timing for Mana, Sisa got the job of national team coach, and together they built an empire that surpasses the paper even on that from two decades ago.
However, the checkpoint did not want to be broken.
In 2017 the Senegalese provided a good tournament, but in the quarter-finals they met Cameron, and it ended in a relegation on penalties after a draw from another zero.
Mana, who was one of the standouts in the undisputed championship, chose to make the fifth kick in a duel, and was the only one to miss.
Bobbin knew how to comfort him best of all, but even that didn't really help.
In 2018, they reached Russia on the World Cup black horse standard, but did not pass the home stage despite receiving a relatively comfortable draw and beating Poland in the opening game.
By 2019 it was already particularly close, and Senegal galloped to the final of the African Championship, but failed to score in the moment of truth.
Mana was lost in the tight guard, and Algeria won 0-1.
This time luck lit up their faces.
Senegalese celebrate (Photo: Reuters)
The loser versus the winner
And so only the truth came in early 2022, and this time the luck of the Senegalese lit up the face all the way.
She did not face particularly strong rivals on the way to the final, defeating all the games in 90 minutes, and Egypt even knocking for her the black sheep (and host) Cameron in the semi-final.
There was only one challenge left on the way to fulfilling the dream, but the monkey on its back was big and heavy.
After all, Senegal has always failed, and this loser tradition could not be forgotten.
Egypt, on the other hand, are a well-known winner in the finals of the African Championship, and this time they also boasted the undisputed penalty king in the form of assistant goalkeeper Muhammad Abu Gabal, known as Gabaski.
Gabaski, who was not supposed to be on the squad for the tournament at all, became a sort of Egyptian Sergio Goikochea - he was called in to replace the injured goalkeeper in the quarter-finals, beat Ivory Coast on penalties, excelled in the quarter-final against Morocco, then tossed the vaults on penalties as well.
With lots of charisma and fire in his eyes, he was supposed to sweep the pharaohs to the gold medals, especially if the business were to get to the penalties.
Celebrated like never before.
Sadio Mana at the end of the final (Photo: Reuters)
Was supposed to miss - and scored
Imagine what went through Mana's head when Senegal received an 11-yard free kick yesterday at the start of the match.
The formidable Gabaski, with his cat's instincts, felt simply impassable - and he did repel the kick with a phenomenal leap.
Since then, Mana and the entire team have not gotten into really flashy situations, Gabaski has been tremendous anyway, and a 0-0 draw has always been in the air.
This is how it ended, and all Senegalese knew that the Egyptians would be favorites in this duel.
Mana, like his good friend from Liverpool Muhammad Salah, chose to make the fifth and final penalty - just like in that fateful final in 2017, just like his coach Sisa in 2002.
There is a considerable risk in this, because the queue may not reach you at all, but the insistence on following this recipe was probably important to him.
It takes nerves of iron to recreate the script that ended in disaster the previous time, but it is possible that the boy who fled at the age of 15 from the neglected village to become a footballer thinks differently.
Maybe he does not have such barriers, maybe he feels that this is the right way to overcome the trauma and prove to himself that anything is possible.
And it was possible.
The Egyptians missed twice, Gabaski stopped just one kick, and when Mana approached the point he knew - if the ball went in, Senegal would be champions for the first time, and the whole country from Dakar to Bali would be in the clouds.
According to tradition, he was supposed to miss, but he did not miss.
And now he is celebrating, as he has never celebrated.
And he so deserves it.
There is no actor who represents pure and authentic Africa better than he.
Mana is the King of Africa in every possible sense, and now he is also the Champion.
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Sadio Mana
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