Sadio Mané set to leave Bayern Munich preseason tour temporarily for CAF awards

Since making his move from Liverpool to Bayern Munich, Sadio Mané has been training at Säbener Straße with the rest of the squad. The former Liverpool winger has already made a positive impression with his performances as well as his attitude on and off the pitch. Mané, however, will have to squirt away briefly while the team is in the United States in order to attend the CAF Awards in Morocco on July 21st.

Bayern’s preseason will be here and gone in the blink of an eye. The team is getting set to depart for a United States mini-tour ahead next week. They are scheduled to have friendlies against DC United in Washington DC (July 20th) and Manchester City at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin (July 23rd). Just a week later, Bayern will open up their competitive fixtures list with a trip to the RedBull Arena to take on RB Leipzig in the DFL-Supercup — and the week after that will be the 2022/23 Bundesliga opener against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Mané’s itinerary amid all this was detailed by Senegalese football journalist Papa Mahmoud Gueye, as cited by @iMiaSanMia on Twitter. Mané will depart the U.S on a private jet after Bayern’s friendly against DC United in order to make it to the awards ceremony in Morocco. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the CAF awards did not take place the past two years and were last held in 2019, when Mané was crowned Men’s African Player of the Year.

For Mané, he’ll be at the awards ceremony in a three-fold representative manner in addition to showing his overall support for The Confederation of African Football. He’s been nominated for African Player of the Year while Senegal has been nominated as team of the year along with manager Aliou Cisse having been nominated as manager of the year. The winners of each category will be decided by votes from captains and coaches of the Member Associations, selected journalists, CAF Technical Study Group, and CAF Legends.

At least for player of the year, Mané has the edge over former Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah, as Senegal beat Egypt in the African Cup of Nations final by virtue of a penalty shootout. It was Senegal’s first ever AFCON title and Mané scored a total of three goals for the Lions of Teranga. He was voted “Man of the Competition” as well as named one of three forwards in the AFCON Best XI.

CAF Awards 2022 — Full list of nominees — (BBC Sport)

Player of the Year (Men)

• Riyad Mahrez (Algeria & Manchester City)
• Karl Toko Ekambi (Cameroon & Lyon)
• Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon & Al Nassr)
• Mohamed Salah (Egypt & Liverpool)
• Naby Keita (Guinea & Liverpool)
• Sebastien Haller (Ivory Coast & Borussia Dortmund)
• Achraf Hakimi (Morocco & Paris St-Germain)
• Edouard Mendy (Senegal & Chelsea)
• Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal & Napoli)
• Sadio Mané (Senegal & Bayern Munich)

Interclub Player of the Year (Men)

• Tiago Azulao (Petro Atletico)
• Karim Konate (ASEC Mimosas)
• Aliou Dieng (Al Ahly)
• Ali Maaloul (Al Ahly)
• Percy Tau (Al Ahly)
• Mohamed Sherif (Al Ahly)
• Mohamed El Shenawy (Al Ahly)
• Achraf Dari (Wydad Athletic Club)
• Yahya Jabrane (Wydad Athletic Club)
• Zouheir El Moutaraji (Wydad Athletic Club)

Young Player of the Year (Men)

• Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso & Lorient)
• Kamaldeen Sulemana (Ghana & Rennes)
• Karim Konate (Ivory Coast & ASEC/RB Salzburg)
• Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal & Metz)
• Hannibal Mejbri (Tunisia & Manchester United)

Coach of the Year (Men)

• Carlos Queiroz (Egypt)
• Pitso Mosimane (Al Ahly)
• Tom Saintfiet (The Gambia)
• Walid Regragui (Wydad Athletic Club)
• Aliou Cisse (Senegal)

National Team of the Year

• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Egypt
• Morocco
• Senegal

Club of the Year

• Petro Atletico (Angola)
• Al Ahly (Egypt)
• RS Berkane (Morocco)
• Wydad Athletic Club (Morocco)
• Orlando Pirates (South Africa)