Sadio Mane reveals he requested to leave Liverpool LAST YEAR

Sadio Mane has revealed that he requested to leave Liverpool a year ago.

The Senegalese forward, who joined the club from Southampton in 2016, departed Merseyside this summer for Bayern Munich after a glittering six-year stay at the club.

Mane was influential in that time, with his 120 goals across 269 appearances key in the Reds winning pretty much every honour there was to win during his spell at the club.

Speaking to BBC Sport Africa, Mane said that his life had always been a challenge and as such he was an individual who to challenge himself continuously.

'It was last year I took my decision to leave because I need a new challenge in my life, Mane said.

'For me, it was the right time. I spoke with the coach [Jurgen Klopp] one year ago and talked to him about my desire to leave.

'If you see my story, I came from a small town - my life was always a challenge, so I want to challenge myself all the time.'

During his six-year spell at Liverpool, Mane, who was this week crowned Africa's best player for a second time, won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League as well as a host of other honours.

Regarding his stay on Merseyside, the Senegalese described it as a 'wonderful' period of his life but that he felt the time was right to leave.

'I spent eight years in the Premier League, and of course I spent six wonderful years with Liverpool and I can say we won almost everything possible,' he said.

'It was not an easy decision but in life, you have to sometimes take decisions and so far I think it's the best decision I have taken in my career,' he added.

'I'm today at one of the best clubs in the world and I'm really, really happy to be at Bayern Munich and very excited to start this season.'

Mane joins Bayern Munich with the club having won every league title since Klopp's Borussia Dortmund last won it in 2011-12. Amid some turbulence earlier this summer surrounding the departure of Robert Lewandowski, Mane will be expected to bring with him the kind of form that established him as one of the Premier League's foremost players during his time at Anfield.

He went on to describe how 'passionate' he was about the 'project' that was presented to him by the German giants, saying that Bayern Munich's assault on all trophy fronts every season made it an 'easy choice' to join them.

He said: 'When Bayern Munich came to me and I saw the project, I was so, so passionate about it.

'They have big targets, because of course it's one of the best clubs in the world. I honestly want to win cups, want to win the Champions League, so if you have a team fighting for everything, it's always an easy choice.'