Mane explains how he had to forgive Klopp before snubbing Man Utd for Liverpool

Sadio Mane has revealed that he “forgave” Jurgen Klopp before he snubbed Manchester United and signed for Liverpool in 2016.

The Senegal international left Southampton for Liverpool in June 2016 for £34m and became the most expensive African player in history at the time.

Mane – who has been linked with a move to Bayern Munich – has gone on to become one of the best players in the world with many tipped him to win the Ballon d’Or this year, although Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema is also a frontrunner.

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The 30-year-old has scored 120 goals in 268 appearances in all competitions over six seasons at Liverpool with Mane scoring 23 in 50 matches this term.

And speaking in an interview with Jamie Carragher in the Daily Telepgraph, Mane has revealed how he snubbed Man Utd but that he had to forgive Klopp first for an earlier collapsed move to Borussia Dortmund.

“I have to say, I was really close to going to Manchester United,” Mane said.

“I had the contract there. I had it all agreed. It was all ready, but instead I thought, ‘No, I want to go to Liverpool’. I was convinced to go with Klopp’s project. I still remember the first time I got the call from Klopp.

“I was watching TV. It was an action movie – because I love movies – and he said, ‘Sadio, listen, I want to explain to you what happened at Dortmund’. That was when he thought of signing me for Dortmund and for some reason it didn’t work out. He tried to explain and I said, ‘it’s okay, it happened’. I forgave him.

“Then he said, ‘now I want you at Liverpool’. And I said, ‘Okay, Dortmund is behind us, let’s focus on the future’.

“He said, ‘We have a big project at Liverpool and I want