Transfer: Sadio Mane Delivers Goodbye Message To Teammates Ahead Move To Saudi Club, Al Nassr

By Daniel Ojukwu

Sadio Mane has said goodbye to his Bayern Munich teammates on Sunday ahead of his move to Al Nassr,  Sky Germany reports.

Mane, a Senegalise international,  is set to undergo a medical with Al Nassr this week after agreeing a four-year deal worth more than €40 million (£34.4m) with the Saudi Arabian club.

Mane had joined Bayern Munich from Liverpool last year. The forward did not really impress during his debut season with the Bundesliga champions.

Mane scored the penalty to win Senegal’s first Africa Cup of Nations title and steered his country to the World Cup finals last year.

Yet, the shin injury Mane sustained while playing for Bayern Munich in November ruled him out of the entire tournament.

The former Liverpool star scored just one Bundesliga goal after the World Cup. Rather than fight for form and a starting berth in Bavaria, Mane has agreed terms with Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, who are captained by a certain Cristiano Ronaldo.

t the end of June, Mane was completely disinterested in any of the offers pouring in from the Saudi Pro League as at the time.

Yet, in the space of two weeks, Mane performed a head-spinning U-turn and accepted Al Nassr’s terms. Admittedly, an annual salary of £34m – £650,000 a week – must be pretty persuasive. Although, he wasn’t exactly struggling for cash at Bayern.

Mane may have been outscored by 33 players last season but he was the Bundesliga’s top earner. Unlike many of the other individuals that have been lured away from European leagues in search of Saudi’s riches, Mane’s wage bump doesn’t initially appear to be earth-shattering – in fact, it’s less than double what Bayern paid him.

Bayern Munich signed Mane for an initial fee of £27.5m last summer as Robert Lewandowski’s nominal replacement. Mane couldn’t match the Pole for goals but he did fill his role as Bayern’s best-paid player, taking home £360,000 each week (£18.9m).

However, there is no personal income tax in Saudi Arabia – the state is rich enough. While in Germany, Mane would have lost 45 percent of his wages due to taxation, ensuring that the Senegal international actually pocketed £10.4m last season once the SDP got their slice.

Ronaldo’s pay packet dwarfs that of his new teammate. Mane stands to earn less than a fifth of Ronaldo’s annual salary, even though he finished second in last year’s Ballon d’Or – 18 places higher than the Portuguese veteran.

However, the two Champions League winners are not the only notable arrivals at Al Nassr this summer. Marcelo Brozovic forced his exit from Internazionale before his new employers were struck with a transfer ban (which has since been lifted). The entrepreneurial midfielder – who opened a cafe-bar called ‘Epic Brozo’ in Croatia – is thought to earn a similar salary to Mane, around £35m per year.

While Mane and Brozovic have entered the autumn of their career and Ronaldo is trudging around a wintry end-game, Seko Fofana is at his peak. The 28-year-old midfielder captained RC Lens to second place in Ligue 1 last season, just one point shy of Paris Saint-Germain’s well-paid cabal.

However, Fofana had his head turned by Al Nassr’s offer of £13m a year (£250,000 per week). While it is short of the sums splashed on some of his new teammates, Fofana’s improved wage represents a ten-fold increase compared to his salary at Lens.

Alex Telles, Ronaldo’s former Manchester United teammate, earned an estimated income of £1.7m during his single season on loan with Sevilla last term. United managed to squeeze a £6m transfer fee out of Al Nassr for the Europa League champion this summer who is set to take home £7m each season in Saudi Arabia.

Before Ronaldo’s arrival and the riches that flooded the division thereafter, the Ivorian defender Ghislain Konan was Al Nassr’s best-paid player on an annual stipend of the comparatively modest £3.5m. It has been a short and expensive few months.