Sadio Mane's PR agent has revealed that Lionel Messi tried to get Barcelona to sign the Senegalese forward last season.
'I Thought Neymar Would Have A Ballon d'Or By Now'
Mane recently called time on his six years on Merseyside, having left Liverpool to join Bayern Munich last week. The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations winner will now be plying his trade in the Bundesliga until 2025. However, it could all have been so different.
Bacary Cisse, Mane's PR agent, has now claimed that while Messi was still at Barcelona, the Argentine wanted the 2019 CAF African Player of the Year to join him at the Camp Nou last season.
The request came before it was announced that the Catalan giants were unable to sign Messi, and his subsequent move to Paris Saint-Germain.
"Last year, [Mane] could have done it with FC Barcelona too," Cisse told RMC on the After Foot Show.
"It was Lionel Messi who wanted Sadio Mane, when it was a question of him extending to Barca. Before [Messi] came to Paris, he had given two names [to Barca to sign]: Sadio Mane and an Argentine central defender.
"It was in June when they were in the middle of the Copa America."
The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner would leave Spain for the French capital because of Barca's unstable financial position as they looked to reconfigure their wage structure.
The last time Messi played alongside an African star up front, it was quite a fruitful partnership – Argentina's captain played alongside Cameroon legend Samuel Eto'o during their five seasons playing together for the Blaugrana, helping each other score 24 goals in the process.
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