Mane: 'Ronaldo was the driving force that brought me to Al Nassr'

Mane said he received many offers from Saudi Arabia before joining Al Nassr. The 31-year-old striker has many former teammates at this tournament, such as goalkeepers Edouard Mendy and Roberto Firmino at Al Ahli, midfielder Jordan Henderson at Al Ettifaq, midfielder Kalidou Koulibaly at Al Hilal or midfielder Fabinho at Al-Ittihad. These players sent messages to convince Mane to become a teammate, but failed.

Mane said Ronaldo was the reason why he chose Al Nassr even though this team did not have any former teammates. "Ronaldo's presence is a motivation for me, because he is the best player in history, if not the best," Kooora quoted Mane as saying. "Al Nassr also has a lot of stars like Anderson Talisca and the whole team is really great. I admired the new teammates from the first training session."

Mane played three games for Al Nassr, but it was not until the third game that he shone and was rated as the best player, according to Sofascore. The Senegal striker received 8.7 points for his performance in the Arab Club Champions Cup semi-final against Al Shorta (Iraq), while no other Al Nassr player scored higher than 7.5.

Mane many times dribbled to create mutations in the match, including a situation where he brought a penalty for Ronaldo to score the only goal of the match. Captain Al Nassr only got 6.8 points, the lowest in the team, but the organizers chose Ronaldo as the best player in the match.

This is the 10th time Ronaldo has scored the decisive goal in 2023, helping Al Nassr reach the final. Their opponent in the last match was Al Hilal - the team that just defeated Al Shabab 3-1 in a lack of players. If he overcomes Al Hilal in the match on the evening of August 12, Al Nassr will make history when he won this tournament for the first time.