Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits he made a mistake in not signing Sadio Mane back in 2014 and he wanted to “punch himself” for it. Having tracked Mane’s progress since an impressive showing in the 2012 Olympics, the then Borussia Dortmund boss held talks with the RB Salzburg player over a possible move to the Westfalenstadion.
Jurgen Klopp said “I made a mistake, We met each other, we talked but by the end I didn’t feel it. I like the player, it was more of a feeling. His baseball cap was askew, the blond streak he still has today. He looked like a rapper just starting out. I thought, ‘I don’t have time for this’. I’d say I have a pretty good feeling for people, but was I wrong! At Dortmund we could only get one player for this position, not two or three, so it needed to be exactly the right fit in this moment. About three months later I would have punched myself, so I already knew that the next chance I have, I would take it. It was a pretty simple decision with Sadio, When the club came this summer and Michael Edwards said we have an opportunity, there were no talks necessary any more. It was a case of ‘Let’s do it’.”
