Jurgen Klopp named as 'main' reason for why Sadio Mane…

Jurgen Klopp named as 'main' reason for why Sadio Mane left Liverpool

Former Premier League midfielder Trevor Sinclair has claimed Jurgen Klopp was part of the reason for Sadio Mane choosing to move to Bayern Munich instead of extending his six-year stay at Liverpool.

Mane completed a move to the Bundesliga giants earlier this week after both clubs managed to thrash out a deal worth up to £35m. The departure of the 30-year-old Senegal international after six incredible seasons at Anfield has sparked plenty of conversations in the media as many have questioned the thought process behind the Reds allowing a player who was so instrumental to last season's quadruple bid to leave, especially after he reinvented himself as a centre-forward toward the back end of the campaign.

And now, former Manchester City and England winger Sinclair has put forward his take as to why Mane decided to leave Liverpool and seek pastures new in Germany - with Klopp supposedly part of the reason.

Sinclair, speaking on talkSPORT, said: "This Sadio Mane transfer is obviously universally accepted now he’s left Liverpool Football Club as a club legend. But I keep on hearing some fans and ex-players saying ‘I don’t know why he’s left?’ Let me tell you why he’s left.

“One, I don’t think he’s ever been lauded and appreciated at the football club like Virgil van Dijk or Mo Salah. Two, the fact that Liverpool let his contract go down to the last year kind of suggests that that’s how they felt about him."

Sinclair added: “Three, I think the main thing is that Jurgen Klopp lost him when he came out and belittled the AFCON tournament which his manager (for Senegal) Aliou Cisse had to come out and defend the AFCON and said ‘you were coming second until our African players started playing for you’.

“Mane is a man of principles, you’ve seen him buy hospitals, buy schools and all the rest of it in his home town of Senegal and it’s for these reasons I feel Sadio Mane’s thought, 'you know what, I’m going, I’m leaving the club'. He’s had a good time, he’s been a club legend but I don’t think he could play on after that.”

The comments Reds manager Klopp made about the Africa Cup of Nations back in November had been massively taken out of context. He ironically called AFCON a 'little' tournament Liverpool would have to plan around in the new year when discussing the international football calendar. But he later moved to clarify what he initially said.

“It’s not even close, it was not the idea in my mind to talk about AFCON as a little tournament or talk about the continent of Africa as a little continent, not at all," explained Klopp.

He added: “What I meant is people said, and if you watch the full press conference, if you wanted to understand it in the right way you could’ve understood it in the right way because I said there’s no more international break until March – then I said ‘oh, there’s a little tournament in January’.

“I didn’t mean a little tournament, I just mean you say it when there’s still a tournament, it’s ironic. There’s still a tournament, a big one where we lose our best players.”

Mane, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane all played at AFCON - with the first two of those players making the final. And it was Mane who scored the winning penalty as Senegal beat Salah's Egypt in a shoot-out after the showpiece finished 0-0.

Klopp sent a heartfelt message to Mane after his departure to Bayern Munich, saying: "It’s a big moment. There is no point in anyone trying to pretend otherwise. One of Liverpool’s greatest ever players is leaving and we must acknowledge how significant this is.

“He leaves with our gratitude and our love. He leaves with his status among the greats guaranteed. And, yes, he leaves in a moment where he is one of the best players in world football.

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