Bayern Munich has announced that Senegalese striker Sadio Mane was in talks “about a change of club” with reports suggesting he was destined for Saudi side Al Nassr.
Kylian Mbappe has been linked to a Saudi switch but in a big twist, he has now been connected with a move to a Premier League powerhouse.
Plus — a transfer promise for Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham?
Read on for the latest transfer rumours and news!
MANE TIPPED TO BE LATEST TO MAKE SAUDI SWITCH
Bayern Munich left Sadio Mane out of a friendly match in Tokyo, posting on social media: “Sadio Mane is in contract negotiations about a change of club and is therefore not in the line-up today.”
The 31-year-old former Liverpool star is expected to become the latest high profile player to join the cash-rich Saudi league.
As Bild and Kicker magazine reported Mane was on his way for a medical with Al Nassr, Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel declined to be drawn on the player’s future.
“We are still in the transfer window and I would like to see what’s going on and wait and see how things will happen,” he told reporters after Bayern’s 1-0 win over Kawasaki Frontale in Japan.
Mane would be another major signing for the club that pulled off the first coup of a raft of signings by Saudi clubs, luring Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Mane won the Champions League and Premier League in six seasons with Liverpool and was a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s devastating front three with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
When Liverpool won their first English league title for 30 years in the pandemic-disrupted 2019-2020 season, Mane scored 18 goals.
But in the summer of 2022, when he won the African Player of the Year, Mane decided he wanted a new challenge — unconfirmed rumours said he had tired of sharing the limelight with Egypt’s Salah at Anfield.
Bayern made a big play for Mane, promising to make him the focal point of an attack which had just lost the services of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona.
After a strong start to the season at Bayern, it soon became clear that Mane was not clicking in Bavaria.
In a Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen in November, Mane suffered an injury to his fibula and his season was put on hold.
The injury forced him to miss the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year in a crushing blow to Senegal’s chances.
While Mane returned to the Bayern team in 2023, his problems were underlined when he became involved in a physical altercation with teammate Leroy Sane following a Champions League defeat to Manchester City.
Bayern reportedly fined Mane around 350,000 euros ($385,000) and gave him a one-match suspension for his part in the incident.
He ended the season with an underwhelming 12 goals in 38 games across all competitions.
He is set to quit Bayern with two years left on his contract. On the international stage, Mane helped Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022.
Apart from Ronaldo Al Nassr have also signed this summer Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, Brazil full-back Alex Telles and Ivory Coast midfielder Seko Fofana.
LIVERPOOL EMERGE AS MBAPPE CONTENDER AMID $498M SAUDI DRAMA
Elsewhere, while Kylian Mbappe has been heavily linked with a big-money move to Saudi Arabia he could instead end up signing with a Premier League giant.
That is according to the Mirror, who reports the Paris Saint-Germain striker could join Liverpool.
It comes after Mbappe refused to meet officials from Al Hilal, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the Saudis’ ambitious hopes of completing a world record 300-million-euro ($A498m) swoop.
That decision from Mbappe has left PSG “fuming” according to the Mirror, with Liverpool ready to strike and offer the 24-year-old superstar a one-year loan deal instead.
That would in turn allow Mbappe to leave Paris and later make his preferred move to Real Madrid while also helping alleviate PSG’s concerns that he could walk for free next year.
Riyadh-based Al Hilal had been given permission by PSG to open talks with Mbappe despite him never having expressed an interest in moving to the fast-growing Saudi league.
Mbappe has one year left on his contract with PSG, who want him to leave now rather than for nothing next summer.
But he is refusing to sign a new contract and the French champions believe he has already struck a deal to move to Real Madrid next year.
It is widely thought that Real hoped to pick up Mbappe for free next year, attracting him with a colossal signing fee because they would not have to pay PSG anything for his services.
The standoff between Mbappe and the French club reached a new peak last weekend when they dropped him from their squad to tour Japan and South Korea.
There have been suggestions that Mbappe would not be selected for an entire year if he fails to find a solution with PSG.
Mbappe, the club’s all-time top scorer with 212 goals in 260 appearances, remains the second most expensive player in history behind his PSG teammate Neymar.
He was still a teenager when he joined PSG on a season-long loan from Monaco in August 2017.
The move turned into a permanent transfer the following year in a 180-million-euro deal.
That fee is exceeded only by Neymar, the Brazilian who cost PSG 222 million euros in 2017.
The third member of PSG’s superstar trio, Lionel Messi, left at the end of last season to join MLS franchise Inter Miami.
The trio could not prevent PSG being knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich at the last 16 stage last season although they went on to clinch the French title.
Al Hilal are one of the handful of clubs owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
They have already signed central defender Kalidou Koulibaly from Chelsea and Ruben Neves from Wolves this summer.
POSTECOGLOU PROMISED ‘TOP-DRAWER’ PLAYERS FOR KEY POSITION
In other news, Ange Postecoglou wants to sign “at least one” new centre-back this summer and even if progress is slow it seems like he has been promised his wish.
That is according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who told Football Fancast that Postecoglou has been “assured he will have top-drawer players coming into the club in that position”.
“It’s not ideal to be this close to the new season and still have no new centre back through the door because at the moment, Spurs really do look like they might be a bit fragile in defence,” Jones said.
“But it will happen. It needs to change but as far as I am aware, Ange has been assured that he will have top-drawer players coming into the club in that position.
“By the end of the window, he will have two more defenders of very high quality to pick from. That’s what I am hearing. Tottenham are making sure they maintain talks with key targets in that sense and are confident the squad will be in a good place by the time the window closes.”
Postecoglou has been open about his desire to bolster the team’s centre-back stocks, telling reporters late last month it is “definitely our intention” to sign one before their Premier League season kicks off on August 13.
“We’ve been working on it for a while and we’ll definitely try to get it done as quickly as possible,” Postecoglou said.
Wolfsburg’s Micky van de Ven and Edmond Tapsoba of Bayer Leverkusen are two names that have been reported to be targets for Postecoglou and Tottenham.
A report from the Daily Express earlier in the week though claimed their hit list of potential centre-back options has been expanded by five players due to “complications” in talks for the pair.
