Sadio Mané has made a surprising revelation of how his mother dropped a few kilos because of the stress involved during AFCON tournament. Mané’s mother had to support her son from the little town of Bambali, but she could not watch Senegal’s games because she was getting nervous when the Terranga were playing. And in an interview with France Football, Mané explained his mother lost seven kilos because of the Africa Cup of Nations.
At the end of the line, I then said to her: “Now we have to go eat because it’s over. We won. She replied: “Ah, you really won?” She is certainly the only Senegalese who was not in front of her television set that evening,” he added. “However, there were more than three hundred people in front of my house trying to tell her everything. But she didn’t want to listen too much. After my missed penalty, she explained to me that she had gone to isolate herself next to the river. That’s where she sent me all her prayers.”
Mané went from missing a penalty to scoring the decisive spot-kick as Senegal were crowned champions of Africa for the first time.
“She confessed to me that she had lost seven kilos during the AFCON because she was so stressed,” he said.
Born and raised in the remote village of Bambali in Senegal, Mane is one of the most humble footballers around and his words do stand out in a world that’s focused on material pleasures.