The German coach had the chance to snap up the Senegalese star during his time at Borussia Dortmund but missed out on a player he holds in high regard <\/p>\n
Jurgen Klopp considers missing out on Sadio Mane during his time in charge of Borussia Dortmund to be \u201cone of my biggest mistakes ever\u201d, but the German has been able to right those wrongs at Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Back in 2014, a Senegalese star was preparing to part company with Red Bull Salzburg.<\/p>\n
A switch to the Bundesliga was mooted, with Klopp having monitored a talented forward since seeing him catch the eye at the 2012 Olympics.<\/p>\n
Article continues below<\/span> <\/p>\n Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over <\/p>\n Talks were held, but Mane slipped the net and ended up joining Southampton in an \u00a311.8 million ($15m) deal.<\/p>\n \u201cI have made a few mistakes in my life and one of my biggest mistakes ever was not taking Sadio when I was at Dortmund,\u201d Klopp said of that failed transfer saga.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were together in an office and I spoke to him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAfterwards I wasn’t sure but that was really my fault!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s an outstanding boy and life gave me a second chance to work with him and hopefully we can both use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Klopp returned for Mane during the first summer transfer window of his reign at Liverpool.<\/p>\n A \u00a334m ($44m) agreement was reached with Southampton in 2016, with that deal making the 26-year-old the most expensive African player in history at the time.<\/p>\n A considerable show of faith from those at Anfield has been richly rewarded, with Mane having become a key figure for the Reds.<\/p>\n He netted 13 times in his debut campaign, before plundering 20 efforts last term as part of a fearsome attacking unit which sees him work in partnership with Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.<\/p>\n \u201cThe time I have spent with Sadio Mane has been fantastic,\u201d Klopp added.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI love the boy!\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s an outstanding player.\u201d<\/p>\n Mane has recorded another nine goals this season, with that contribution helping Liverpool to the top of the Premier League table and the last 16 of the Champions League.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The German coach had the chance to snap up the Senegalese star during his time at Borussia Dortmund but missed out on a player he holds in high regard Jurgen Klopp considers missing out on Sadio Mane during his time in charge of Borussia Dortmund to be \u201cone of my biggest mistakes ever\u201d, but the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n