---
title: "Profit Players: Sadio Mane’s £37m fee genius work from Liverpool"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/profit-players-sadio-manes-37m-fee-genius-work-from-liverpool/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Callum Pragnell"
section: "Features"
published: "2019-10-12T06:35:00Z"
modified: "2019-10-12T06:35:00Z"
---

# Profit Players: Sadio Mane’s £37m fee genius work from Liverpool

![](https://cdn.footballtransfertavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Profit-Players-1.png)

**This article forms part of our *Profit Players* feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve.**

When Sadio Mane joined Southampton from Red Bull Salzburg in 2014 for [£20.7m](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sadio-mane/transfers/spieler/200512/transfer_id/1123329) (per Transfermarkt), arguably few casual football fans knew who the Senegalese wide man was.

It took Mane [nine matches](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sadio-mane/alletore/spieler/200512/plus/0?saison=2014&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&minute=&pos=&torart=&stand=) to open his account on the south coast, but when he did, the goals came flowing. An eleven goal return in his debut season in the Premier League – including a [record-breaking hat-trick](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/09/13/the-fastest-premier-league-hat-tricks-ever/sadio-mane/) against Aston Villa in May 2015 – saw people sit up and take notice of the African winger.

The season after, Mane would find the net [15 times](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sadio-mane/alletore/spieler/200512/plus/0?saison=2015&verein=180&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&minute=&pos=&torart=&stand=), alongside registering nine assists (all competitions). This earned the electric forward a [£34m move to Liverpool](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36642523) in the summer of 2016.

Eyebrows may well have been lifted when the former FC Metz forward joined one of Europe’s biggest clubs for a fee close to £40m after just two seasons in the top-flight of England. After all, pundit and Liverpool legend Phil Thompson [believed](https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/mane-has-cost-liverpool-far-too-much-thompson) the Reds had ‘overpaid’ for the player at the time.

“I think we have paid far too much for him,” Thompson said to [Sky Sports](https://skysports.com/) (via [FourFourTwo](https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/mane-has-cost-liverpool-far-too-much-thompson)).

However, fast forward three years and he is now one of the best football players in not just the Premier League, but the world with fellow top-level professionals such as Cesc Fabregas [suggesting as much](https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/sadio-mane-one-top-three-20393646) recently.

Mane has gone onto score 67 goals and provide 24 assists for the Reds, per [Transfermarkt](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sadio-mane/leistungsdatenverein/spieler/200512), and finished last season as a joint-top goalscorer in the Premier League with [22 goals](https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/premier-league-top-scorers-golden-boot-race-goal-standings-epl-2019-season-salah-mane-aubameyang-a4140301.html) – the same amount as his Liverpool teammate Mo Salah and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who shared the Golden Boot award with him last term.

There was [reported interest from Real Madrid](https://www.francefootball.fr/news/Mercato-sadio-mane-liverpool-au-real-madrid/907619) in the summer of 2018, who allegedly wanted Mane to help cope with life after Cristiano Ronaldo following their disastrous campaign without the Portugal star last season – a telling sign of the level that the 27-year-old is now at.

[Transfermarkt](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sadio-mane/profil/spieler/200512) now values the Senegalese winger at £108m – almost £70m more than he joined Liverpool for in 2016. Great business from the Merseyside titans, who three years ago took a gamble which has massively paid off.

***Is Mane currently the best player in the Premier League? Let us know by commenting below!***