In a debut Premier League season with Southampton that saw him rack up 10 goals and three assists, Sadio Mané is one who definitely caught the eye of many English football followers.
Mané arrived at St. Mary’s Stadium on the 1st of September 2014 on a four-year deal for a fee rumoured at being somewhere between £10 and £12 million after a relatively successful spell with Red Bull Salzburg. The then 22-year-old had made 63 appearances for the Austrian club and scored 31 goals, a rate of practically a goal every second game, an impressive return for a player who operated primarily as a winger.
He made his first league appearance in England four weeks after signing, in a match at St. Mary’s against Queens Park Rangers in which he was substituted in the 68th minute, watching his side come out 2-1 winners. From that point Mané missed just three Premier League games for the rest of the season, a consistent starter in Ronald Koeman’s squad.
The Senegalese delivered numerous dazzling performances throughout the season, his pace and dribbling ability a real handful for both fullbacks and centre-halves alike. He offers a new dimension to the Southampton attack with no other players in the squad quite able to replicate what he brings to the forward line. He also demonstrated a respectable work rate, not allowing his contributions to fade or waver in the closing stages of matches, even scoring a couple of his goals in the closing stages of games.
The young star, perhaps most importantly, demonstrated an ability to perform in the big games, scoring against both Arsenal and Chelsea as well as scoring the solitary goal for his side in five matches, winners in three of those.
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The highlight of the Senegalese’s 2014-15 campaign was undoubtedly a record-breaking hat-trick in the penultimate game of the season against Aston Villa. Mané scored three goals in just two minutes and 56 seconds, breaking Robbie Fowler’s record of four minutes and 33 seconds set whilst playing for Liverpool against Arsenal in 1994.
Seemingly the only downside from the winger’s first season was some possible disciplinary issues. Mané racked up five yellows across the season and most notably was relegated to the bench from starting XI facing Liverpool in February for arriving at the ground late.
The starlet has already been capped 22 times and scored six goals for his home country in a three-year international career.
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Of the permanent signings made by Ronald Koeman this season, Mané has definitely been one of the more impressive. Having some quieter patches, as would be expected with any player their first year in a new league, he was arguably the most consistent of the new signings and offered the most across the season.
The man from Senegal’s form has not gone unnoticed internationally with a rumoured shock move from German giants Bayern Munich to bring the promising youngster to the Allianz. An impressive season in England is alleged to have been enough to catch the eye of Pep Guardiola and spark interest to sign the winger.
Of course the 22-year-old would not be the first one-season-wonder to grace the world football, especially not in England, so perhaps a move away may be a bit further in the future. One thing is certain, Mané has caught the attentions of many after a very successful season and will have plenty of eyes on him next term, whether that will still be playing at St. Mary’s Stadium, however, is perhaps not so clear.
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