📍Bambali, Sédhiou, Senegal
1992 – 2009“Sadio Mané was born in April 1992 in Bambali, a small farming village in the Sédhiou region of Casamance, in southern Senegal, hundreds of kilometres from Dakar. His father was the imam of the village mosque, and his family were farmers, growing rice and groundnuts. There was no hospital in the village, and when his father fell ill when Sadio was a boy, he died before he could get proper treatment. His uncle helped his mother raise him, and Sadio worked in the fields with his family. He was obsessed with football, playing on the village's dirt pitch with grapefruits, cans or stones when there was no ball, and watching the 2002 World Cup, when Senegal reached the quarter-finals, made him dream of playing for his country. His family wanted him to concentrate on his studies and religion, and saw football as a distraction. At about fifteen, with money from a friend and without telling his mother or uncle, he ran away to Dakar to try to become a footballer. After a week, they found him and brought him home, but they finally agreed that once he finished school, he could try. He went back to Dakar, and at a trial he was spotted by scouts and joined the Génération Foot academy. In 2011 he moved to Metz in France, and later starred for Salzburg, Southampton and Liverpool, winning the Champions League and the Premier League. He led Senegal to their first Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022. He has given generously to Bambali, funding a hospital, a school and a mosque, and providing support to every family in the village.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today