Klopp: Mane has become a world-class player | OneFootball

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·2 October 2020

Klopp: Mane has become a world-class player

Article image:Klopp: Mane has become a world-class player

Jurgen Klopp has lauded Sadio Mane for developing into one of the game's leading attackers.

Mane moved to Anfield in 2016, having shone for two years at Southampton after also impressing for a couple of seasons at Salzburg.


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The Senegal international scored 31 goals in 63 league games for the Austrian club and 21 in 67 for Saints.

Mane looks to have kicked on to another level since joining Liverpool, though, netting 66 times in the Premier League across 130 matches.

He has been a key member of a team that reached back-to-back Champions League finals - with Liverpool winning the tournament the second time around - while Mane claimed a Premier League winners' medal last term too.

"I saw his potential [at Southampton] and I hoped that he could reach that level, 100 per cent, because the combination of speed, physicality, technique and awareness is pretty rare," Klopp told reporters.

"That's what he showed at Southampton already - and what he showed at Salzburg already, which I should have seen earlier.

"From a talent to a settled, proven world-class player is a big step, because you have to do it pretty much week in and week out. That's what he is able to do. It's a massive development.

"I have no idea of a number but for sure [he is] in the top, top, top, top offensive wingers, strikers, whatever you want to see in the world.

"I think everybody would agree on that. That's why we are really happy to have him here, obviously."