Sadio Mane’s childhood friend, Desire Segbe Azankpo took just 36 seconds to score his first goal for Bayern Munich on his debut.
Azankpo was playing for Bayern Munich II when he netted his first for the club during their 6-0 win over SV Heimstetten at the Grunwalder Stadion on Saturday.
With just 36 seconds on the clock, the perfect opportunity fell to the Benin international’s feet after a shot by team mate Granit Leon Ranos was deflected right into Azankpo’s path. The 29-year-old calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net to open the scoring. Azankpo later went from scorer to provider as he assisted Ranos’ second goal which made it 4-0 to the Bavarian club before the half time whistle.
Azankpo and Mane have been on an incredible journey together, from sharing everything as childhood friends to playing for Bayern, it has been one hell of a ride.
Azankpo spoke about Mane earlier on this year, according to Goal, he said: “He [Mane] always had big ambitions. He always wanted to go as high as possible. He comes from a poor background, like all of us.
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“And we said to ourselves that we have to succeed in order to help the family, to take over, because there are people behind who are hungry.
“Sadio has always dreamed very big. And I remember when he spoke to me about the Senegalese selection, he wanted it so much.”
Since Mane’s move from Liverpool to Bayern this summer, the Senegal international has hit the ground running.
So far this season, he has scored five goals in nine appearances for the German Bundesliga champions.
Whilst Mane has had a promising start to the 22/23 season, the same can’t be said about his former side Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have had a turbulent start to their campaign, they have only recorded two wins out of six in the Premier League. In their opening match of the Champions League, they produced one of the worst performances of Klopp’s tenure as they were easily beaten 4-1 by Italian Serie A side, Napoli.
Klopp admitted after the defeat that his side need to reinvent themselves.
He said: “We played bad in the first half but usually we don't concede three goals.
“With Alisson in goal, you have to be really bad for that to happen. It looks like we have to reinvent ourselves. There is a lot of things lacking.”
Their next scheduled match will be another tough game in Europe as they host Ajax at Anfield on Tuesday night.
Topics: Sadio Mane, Bayern Munich
Marcus Chan