Following his excellent campaign last season and guiding his country to the Africa Cup of Nations glory, Senegalese forward, Sadio Mané has been ranked as the second best football player in the world at the 2022 Ballon d’Or.
The 30-year-old who became the second African player to reach the podium of the prestigious trophy since George Weah’s triumph in 1995, finished behind Karim Benzema.
During his final season with Liverpool, Mané netted 23 times and also helped Senegal clinch their first Africa Cup of Nations crown earlier in the year.
At the 2022 Ballon d’Or, Mane also clinched the first-ever Socrates Award for his charity works at the event. He is the first recipient of the prize which commemorates football players’ achievements off the pitch.
It could be recalled that last year, Sadio Mané inaugurated a brand new hospital in his home village of Bambaly in Casamance, western Senegal.
Within a few months span, he invested nearly a million dollars in the building of infrastructure, including a school.
The former Liverpool forward who is now with Bayern Munich, offers each family in the village a monthly support package of almost $70 and has also awarded nearly $400 bonus to the top pupils in the village high school.
The humanitarian prize was named after the late Brazil midfielder Socrates. He died in 2011 aged 57. He was chosen by France Football – one of the Ballon d’Or’s organnizers- because of the involvement of this Brazilian international midfielder in the famous “Corinthian Democracy”.
In the midst of the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1980s, the Corinthians team made the daring choice to submit all the decisions of the club to a vote.
Speaking at the ceremony, an elated Mané pledged to do more. “I’m really happy to be a guest tonight,” he said. “Sometimes, I’m a bit shy, but I’m really happy to do what I can do for my people to make things better.”
