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To say there were improbable odds on Sadio Mane becoming a footballer, is a gross understement.

No one from his region of Senegal ever made it. And he was still playing on the local park at 17 with his mates.

Now a Golden Boot winner and a key part of the Liverpool side in Saturday’s Champions League final, Mane talks to Anfield icon Robbie Fowler on a series of wide-ranging subjects from how he got here to what it means to wear the red of Liverpool.

Here's what the Reds forward had to say on nearly joining Manchester United , his 'rivalry' with Mohamed Salah and more...

ON BEATING ROBBIE’S FASTEST HAT-TRICK RECORD...

RF: Right Sadio, I’ve got to start with this: how does it feel to steal my quickest hat trick record? That was the only thing I’m famous for, so I shouldn’t even be talking to you!

SM: Nah, I don’t think so, you are a legend!

RF: I scored the three goals in four and a half minutes, and I thought that was quick, but your record, was it 2mins 56? That is incredible. I was thinking mine would never get beat, but yours surely will never be beaten?!

SM: I am too shy to say, sorry for that though!

(Image: MaddockMirror/Twitter)

ON WHY HE TURNED DOWN UNITED...

RF: The spirit in the team seems incredible right now.

SM: I never thought it could be like this. It is incredible. Everybody in the team loves Klopp! Usually you go a club and the players are complaining, like, ‘ah the coach…’ but here it is the opposite. Everybody is happy and we do everything together.

RF: It could have been different. There was talk of Manchester United wanting to sign you as well as Liverpool.

SM: Yes, I was really, really close because I even met up with them. So I was coming, I was there and I spoke with the boss who was there before (Van Gaal).

They made an offer, but in the same week, Klopp called me. He said: “I think it’s the right club. The right coach for me, and I think it’s better that I go to Liverpool’. For me I think it was the right time as well. I said, “I am going to Liverpool.”

RF: Easy decision: Liverpool is the biggest club in the world!

SM: At that time, leaving Southampton , I saw many clubs, but I think Liverpool is the right club for me. I play against Liverpool, I play against City, United, every team and I scored a lot against Liverpool when I was at Southampton, but still I thought this club is my club!

The boss (Klopp) was at Liverpool and yet I always scored against them. I think he thought: ‘He’s always killing us, so let’s buy him!’ Yeah, just to stop me scoring against Liverpool – so it was good for us both!

(Image: REUTERS)

ON HOW HE GOT HERE...

RF: I want to talk about your life, and your journey. Here you are in a second Champions’ League final, and I know it’s been a ridiculously tough road to get here. How the hell did you do it?

SM: Ever since I was born I wanted to be a football player, but as I come from a tiny village in the south of my country a long way from the capital, it was hard. It was such a small village, and no one before had a chance to become a football player.

For my parents it was just a dream that wouldn’t happen. They thought there was no way for me to become a professional.

It was only the people from the capital who became football players.

RF: So how did you make that step Sadio, when it was so difficult?

SM: I just played around my village until I was 17. I had one year in an academy in the capital Dakar, and then I came to France. It happened so quick for me!

RF: I can see we both sacrificed everything to get to the top, that we both focused completely on football at the expense of everything else when we were kids. Like you, no one else in my family played football. I was dedicated, obsessed, and you’re telling me the same thing. It’s interesting.

SM: It is similar. That is where I learned to be a footballer, on the street. People don’t understand what we go through to get there. Since I became a footballer, everything has changed. In a second like that (clicks fingers). People let their children play football now.

All the village now, they want to play, they want to be footballers! I can remember some people who hated football, they now all sit in front of the tv, watching the games!

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

ON HIS FAITH...

RF: Just on your faith, it seems important in these times, that someone who is so high profile as you, and someone who people look up to, that you show how your religion is based on people coming together, spreading kindness and a good message to people.

You and Mo, people understand and appreciate your religion more now. Football is important in that sense because you see people from all over the world, from different backgrounds, different faiths, working together for the team.

SM: For sure, that is true. I am someone who in these kind of things who has a responsibility. For sure football should be like this, like me and Mo Salah. I am someone who is always really, really positive.

If something is going wrong (in the world) sometimes I am always relaxed with the things. I know it can be difficult for me, but I say, ok, it is important, it can be difficult, but it is how I deal with things.

I try to make people understand. To influence people at the same time, in a positive way, I think it is really important. Not just in football, but in general in life. It is how I am and how I like to be - and I try to put this in people’s minds as well.

RF: That’s a very important, positive message. In Liverpool recently, we have had people trying to give a very different message. A negative one about people and communities.

But you have a very positive message of bringing communities together, working together for the same cause, having the same values - that we are all the same?

SM: Yeah, it’s really, really positive. Not always everything will go well, because sometimes it is difficult. And in the difficult times you can really know people. Until now I have been ok with this, like I say, I’m a really, really positive guy. I can believe in people.

Like with the Champions’ League, I really want to win it, for sure it is my dream. But if it doesn’t work, then I will be also be proud, and I will be with this team, and that is how it should be because it is life.

There are setbacks and bad things. But I will still try to give everything for my team, and to get something else. It is the same with life.

(Image: Action Images via Reuters)

ON HIS ‘RIVALRY’ WITH MO SALAH...

RF: Ok, here’s a question for you as a fellow striker. It’s 0-0 in the last minute of the final, there’s a chance. Who do you want to be in position for it, you or Mo Salah?

SM: Hahahaha! I just want to win! Mo scores, I score, I need the cup. I think at this moment, I want this trophy, sometimes, so much it makes me sick! He can score. Mo you can score please. Until we get the trophy I think he’s the one for the goal!

RF: I think that says everything about you. I won’t lie, I’d want it to be me!

SM: I’m being honest. The trophy, if Mo scores I give it to him. We want the trophy, so score, Mo, please!

RF: You do seem a player who is prepared to sacrifice your own glory for the team. Are you happy being out of the limelight, Mo getting all the credit, is that you?

SM: I think last season, and until now in fact, Mo has been incredible. If you want to win something as a team, of course you need this kind of player.

So you use the strength in your team. Mo was top scorer, and he was scoring at incredible levels for us. If he wasn’t there, we maybe wouldn’t have got into the Champions’ League, because he scored so many important goals.

For me, the most important thing is to win something. He can score goals, or Bobby Firminho or me, it doesn't matter. I think as a team we do everything as a team, we all contribute. The goalkeeper, defenders, midfield, everyone.

RF: People make out there’s this big rivalry between you and that you’re not friends, that’s clearly not the case, is it?

SM: Of course not. This kind of thing, it happens in football. It doesn’t matter if I score or not as long as the team scores. Some people want to say its a rivalry, but I think that’s what makes football so exciting – a rivalry. But it really doesn’t matter to me. Honest!

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

ON CRYING AFTER RELEGATION

RF: I saw at Metz, you were relegated in your first season!

SM: I still remember. I was the young player in the team, but I felt responsible. The day the team was relegated, I was crying like never I did before. The people around the club, I felt so bad for them.

I felt bad maybe because that day I missed two chances, and if maybe I scored we would stay up. So I felt it was my fault, and I was crying all day. Then the day after, the club offered me a five-year deal!

I wanted to stay with the club until we came back up again. Then Salzburg came and they paid £4m, and it was the club who said: ‘sorry but you have to go!’. I didn’t want to leave.