To quote Bill Lawry, it’s all happening here. Except that the stage is not a cricket match , but Saudi’s lucrative football league, formally known as the RSL (Roshn Saudi League).
Something or the other is happening every day in the lucrative competition as it shops leading football talent in the world with offers they can’t refuse.
Sadio Mané is the latest to be linked to the RSL. He is reportedly in talks with Al-Nassr, where he could pair up with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mané’s current employers, Bayern Munich, are aware of it.
“FC Bayern is informed about this,” club president Herbert Hainer said in Japan during a pre-season tour, according to the German news agency DPA. “But these are initial talks, you have to wait and see.”
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Hainer was speaking after a report appeared in the German press, which said that an adviser to Mané was to meet Al-Nassr representatives to discuss a possible deal.
Mané, a Premier League and Champions League winner during his time with Liverpool, is the latest big name player to be linked with Saudi clubs who have no dearth of cash to lure stars.
However, there also are reports that he does not wish to leave Bayern as he wants another tilt at the Champions League, but he is being pressured to move on by Bayern.
As of now, Mané has two years remaining on his contract with Bayern. However, his first season with the club after moving from Liverpool has been disappointing. Injuries have been a factor. He scored 12 goals in 38 games. But after suffering a leg injury in November, he could only find the net once.
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The injury also ruled him out of the Qatar World Cup.
Moreover, in April, Mané was suspended for one game by Bayern for an incident described as "misconduct." Reports suggested that he struck his teammate Leroy Sané in the locker room following a Champions League loss to Manchester City.
Hainer was under no illusions of Mané's first season at Bayern. He described it as “certainly not satisfactory, neither for him, nor for us.”
The RSL doesn’t seem to care.
