Liverpool superstar Sadio Mane would have won the Ballon d’Or if he was European or Brazilian, according to his national Senegalese compatriot Cheikhou Kouyate.
Mane finished in fourth place after the final standings with 347 votes from the panel of world football journalists, behind Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (686 votes), Liverpool club-mate Virgil van Dijk (679) and Juventus attacker Cristiano Ronaldo (476).
Along with helping Jurgen Klopp’s team to Champions League glory in June, Mane has continually excelled in domestic action last term winning the Golden Boot for the Premier League’s runaway leaders and Kouyate, who was part of the Crystal Palace team that lost 2-1 to Mane’s Liverpool in November, suggested the 27-year-old was overlooked due to the reason he is an African and not any player from the continent can win the award.
While speaking to reporters the 27 year old midfielder explained that Mane might have been overlooked to win the Ballon d’Or mainly because he is African and insisted if the Liverpool star was from Europe or South American he would have been a real winner because there was nobody better than the Senegal attacker last season, “For me this Ballon d’Or is for Sadio Mane, there is no doubt about that, Listen, if Sadio was a Brazilian or a European there would not have been no debate. It would have been him for the award straight away and it’s not because I play with him at the international level, or because I know him; it’s just what people who watch football feel. Just go back and watch what he did for both club and country and you will see in between the lines that no one has been better than him.”
Mane also played an integral role in Senegal’s run to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations, scoring three times in five appearances before they were beaten 1-0 by Algeria in the final.
