Didier Drogba has backed Sadio Mane to be a front-runner for the Ballon d'Or and hopes the Senegalese winger can become only the second African to win the award.

Mane has had a stunning year with Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool: winning the Champions League, the Premier League Golden Boot after bagging 22 goals and finishing second in the league and African Cup of Nations.

Those successes ensured he was named on the Ballon d'Or's 30-man shortlist and in with a shot of becoming only the second winner, after George Weah in 1995.

Didier Drogba has backed Liverpool star Sadio Mane as a potential Ballon d'Or winner

Sadio Mane has enjoyed a stellar 2019 with Liverpool, winning the UEFA Champions League

Chelsea icon Drogba was dominated for the Ballon d'Or eight times, finishing fourth in 2007

Drogba - eight times a nominee but never a winner - finished in fourth place behind Kaka, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2007 within a career that cemented him as a Chelsea, Ivory Coast and African football legend.

'What Mane does in the Premier League, very few players are able to do,' Drogba, now a Ballon d'Or ambassador, said while speaking to Paris Match.

'It is possible [he can emulate George Weah], but it would have been possible before.

'There are many players who have well represented the African continent, like Samuel Eto'o.

Mane's team-mate Mohamed Salah has also been nominated amongst seven Liverpool players

'What is a pity is that when we talk about African player, we talk about the continent, we do not speak of a country. We will never say Kylian Mbappe represents the European continent. It is a small shift that is present.'

Mane has finished on the podium at the African Footballer of the Year awards three years in a row, but is yet to win the award: sitting in second behind Liverpool team-mate Mohamed Salah.

Salah has reached the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d'Or alongside Mane - with Liverpool also represented by Alisson Becker, Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Georginio Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino.