They were born in little villages, on the same continent, two months apart. They joined the same club, for almost the same fee, 12 months apart. They have gone on to inspire Liverpool to heights unimaginable when they arrived at Anfield. As Sadio Mane and Mo Salah have transformed themselves from superhero sidekicks into temporary rivals, with Egypt trading blows with Senegal for a place at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, we juxtapose the 29-year-olds with trivia, stats, quotes and more.

Mane: El Hadji Diouf, Ronaldinho. Salah: Ronaldo, Francesco Totti, Zinedine Zidane. “I used to love El-Hadji Diouf and Ronaldinho, but especially Ronaldinho. He was… wow. The goals, the skills, the moves you had never seen before. I used to pretend I was him when I was young, but I couldn’t do the things he could. I still love him. He will be my hero forever.” Mane

“I have always loved magicians. Those unique players who can do things others can’t. When I first got into football it was Zidane, the Brazilian Ronaldo and Totti. I used to love watching them and pretending I was them when I was out on the street with my friends.” Salah

Unlike so many of the finest footballers on the planet today, Mane and Salah both had waits to become recognised as elite performers. As a 20-year-old, the Senegalese was a bit-part performer as Metz were relegated into the French third tier. After spells at Red Bull Salzburg and Southampton, there was widespread disbelief when Liverpool paid £34 million to make him the most expensive African footballer of all time in 2016.

The Egyptian, for his part, made only six Premier League starts in two seasons at Chelsea, during which he had loan spells at Fiorentina and Roma, before leaving Stamford Bridge permanently in 2016. At the end of that calendar year, Salah and Mane came 65th and 69th respectively in The 100 best footballers in the World by The Guardian.

2 Mane wins 1 draw (Senegal won on penalties) 0 Salah wins Mane set up the first for Mame Biram Diouf and scored the second as Senegal beat Egypt 2-0 in CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifying in September 2014. Two months later, the Southampton winger was named man of the match as the Lions of Teranga won 1-0 in Cairo to qualify for the African finals at the Pharaohs’ expense. The Liverpool colleagues’ most recent and consequential clash was in the recent AFCON final. Egypt went into it with a record seven titles to their name, while Senegal had never lifted the trophy. Mane nevertheless emerged as the hero of a Senegalese triumph, withstanding the pressure created by an early penalty miss to score the winning spot-kick in the shootout. He was then named the competition’s best player.

Salah was named CAF African Footballer of the Year for 2017, becoming the first Egyptian since Mahmoud El Khatib 34 years earlier to win the award. The Nagrig native defended his title the following year. Mane became, in 2019, the first player since Didier Drogba to win his maiden African Footballer of the Year trophy having previously finished on the podium thrice. CAF cancelled the awarding of the prize for 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. Salah has twice finished on The Best FIFA Men’s Player podium, finishing third in 2018 and 2021. Mane has twice narrowly missed a top-three place, coming fifth in 2019 and one better the following year.

176 Mane scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history in merely 176 seconds for Southampton against Aston Villa in 2015. It smashed the record of 277 seconds Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler had set against Arsenal in 1994.

48.9 Salah boasts almost 49 million followers on Instagram – the 10th most for any active footballer on Instagram behind James Rodriguez (49.0), Sergio Ramos (49.6), Paul Pogba (52.6), Marcelo (52.7), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (52.8), Kylian Mbappe (68.5), Neymar (171), Lionel Messi (313) and Cristiano Ronaldo (416).

32 Salah holds the record for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season: 32 in 36 appearances in 2017/18. 18 Mane has scored 18 headers since joining Liverpool – an incredible return for someone who is 5ft 9ins.

9 Mane netted in his ninth consecutive Premier League appearance against Crystal Palace in September 2021, setting a new record. Robin van Persie had netted in eight successive Premier League outings against Stoke City.