Sadio Mane: What my parents told me about playing football

Liverpool striker Sadio Mane almost never made it as a footballer.

The Senegalese has revealed that his parents told him playing the sport would be a waste.

“I was born in a village where there had never been a footballer who’d made it in the major championships,” Mane told Bleacher Report .

“I remember that when I was little, my parents felt that I should study to become a teacher. They thought football was a waste of time and I’d never succeed at it.

“I always said: ‘This is the only job that will enable me to help you. And I think I have a chance to become a footballer.’

“They weren’t sure about it because I was a long way from the capital and almost nobody from there had succeeded. So they were against the idea, and they never believed it, right up until the day when I signed my first professional contract.”