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Sadio Mane insists he respects Liverpool but remained non-committal on his future amid links to Bayern Munich.
The Liverpool forward has been strongly linked to the Bundesliga champions, and suggested he would reveal his future following the Reds’ Champions League final with Real Madrid last week.
Mane offered little clarity on his future after the defeat to Madrid, but then suggested his preference lies away from the Premier League by saying he will let the Senegalese people decide his next destination.
“Isn’t it between 60 to 70 per cent of Senegalese want me to leave Liverpool? I will do what they want. We will see soon,” he said while away on international duty.
But after becoming Senegal’s record scorer with a hat-trick against Benin on Saturday, Mane backtracked on his comments as he expressed his admiration for Liverpool.
“I spoke while joking with a bit of humour and it was everywhere. I think we’ll stop there,” he told Canal Plus.
“Liverpool is a club I respect a lot. The fans adopted me since day one. Regarding the future, we’ll see.”
Mane played 51 games for Liverpool in the 2021-22 season – only 10 players across Europe’s top five leagues appeared more often – finding the net 23 times and assisting two more.
That has led to interest from Bayern, but undoubtedly most of Europe’s elite clubs would be interested should Mane become available.
Real Madrid and Barcelona could be among potential contenders for the Senegal international’s signature, but he was unable to pick between the pair when asked who he generally favoured and was quick to point instead towards his support for Marseille.
“You know, you’ve got me in trouble with the Liverpool fans right now but hey,” he told reporters.
“Those two teams [Madrid and Barca] are not bad. But I’m not a fan of those teams. You know, my team is Marseille, so I would say Marseille.”
