Mohamed Salah has given a remarkable insight into his relationship with former teammate Sadio Mane, revealing the pair weren’t close during their five-year spell together at Anfield.
During that period, Salah and Mane guided Liverpool to Champions League success in 2019 and the Premier League title the following year. The players jointly won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2019 and both enjoyed prolonged spells of individual success despite an apparent rift between them.
The wingers shared a field 223 times before Mane’s departure to Bayern Munich in 2022, but Salah revealed in a recent interview with L’Equipe that he and Mane were not on good terms.
“I scored a lot [44 goals in my first season], and then Sadio told himself it was his turn to score more too. Yes, there was tension with Sadio,” the Egyptian said.
“Mind you, we were professional until the end, I don’t think it affected the team. It’s human to want more, I understand that, he’s a competitor. Off the pitch, we weren’t very close, but we always respected each other.”
Salah’s perceived selfishness angered Mane on a few occasions during his time at Liverpool, particularly during a Premier League match against Burnley in August 2019 when the former opted to shoot rather than pass to Mane, who was standing in a better position.
On the allegation of selfishness, Salah said: “I don’t care. People can think what they want, it’s their right.
(Image: Getty Images)
“But I invite everyone to note that the person who provided Mane with the most assists is me. We can look at the facts, but it’s obviously easier to throw out phrases like that; it makes the headlines, I know how it works.
“As long as it remains within the limits of respect, that’s fine with me. But that doesn’t mean that this opinion is true. At the end of the day, I know what I did, and my conscience is clear.”
Mane claimed the incident with Salah at Turf Moor was immediately “forgotten” despite remonstrating from the substitutes’ bench after he was replaced.
“He said to me: ‘Sadio, why are you angry?’ I told him, ‘You needed to give me the ball, Mo’, to which he replied, ‘I didn’t see you. You know I’ve got nothing against you’,” said the former Southampton man at the time.
“I know that, but his reaction was a bit strange to me. We talk on the phone sometimes, we text each other and we don’t have a problem.”
Writing in his book about his time at Liverpool, Roberto Firmino gave his verdict on the incident. “It [the row] had been brewing since the previous season, 2018-19. My instinct and my duty was to defuse the situation between them. Pour water on the fire – never petrol.”
Firmino added Mane and Salah were “never best friends”, but insisted “they always acted with the utmost professionalism”.
