The Senegalese has been phenomenal for Liverpool in the last couple of seasons and has even managed to outshine Mohamed Salah of late. Sadio Mane is one of the most important players in Jurgen Klopp’s team and his rise in the world of football can be ascertained from the fact that he is one of the contenders for the Ballon d’Or this year.
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The Senegalese started his career at FC Metz, where he wore the No. 33 shirt in the 2011/12 season, and then briefly wore the No. 21 shirt in the following year, before his move to RB Salzburg in the summer of 2012.
At the Austrian side, Mane was handed the No. 40 shirt in his first season. From the 2013/14 season, the Senegalese was promoted to the No. 10 shirt. On his arrival at Southampton in the 2014/15 season, Mane continued to wear the coveted number and was so impressive that eventually Klopp and Liverpool came calling in the summer of 2016.
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Mane had to shift to the No. 19 jersey for his first two seasons, as Philippe Coutinho had the No. 10 at Anfield.
The Brazilian left in January 2017, clearing the way for Mane to don his favoured number. He was subsequently handed the No. 10 shirt at Anfield ahead of the 2018/19 season and went on to justify the decision by winning the Premier League Golden Boot and also powering his club to the UEFA Champions League trophy.
The Senegalese shuffled between the No. 9 and No. 10 shirt for his country for the initial years. Since the 2015/16 season, Mane has been wearing the No. 10 shirt for Senegal and has been worth his weight in gold for both club and country.
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Deepungsu Pandit
Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.
Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.
Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.
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