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Lionel Messi 'wants Liverpool's Sadio Mane at Barcelona'

Messi 'wants Sadio Mane at Barcelona'
© Reuters
Barcelona captain Lionel Messi reportedly urges the club's board to sign Sadio Mane from Liverpool after being impressed by his performance against Bayern Munich.

Barcelona captain Lionel Messi has reportedly urged the club's hierarchy to sign Sadio Mane from Liverpool this summer.

Mane has been in scintillating form for Jurgen Klopp's title-chasing Reds recently, with his goal against Fulham on Sunday making it 20 for the season and 11 from his last 11 outings across all competitions.

The Senegalese striker scored twice as Liverpool dumped Bayern Munich out of the Champions League earlier this week too, and that performance is understood to have drawn the attention of Barcelona.

Don Balon claims that Messi has identified Mane as a player who could increase Barcelona's pace in attack as they look for an alternative to the misfiring Philippe Coutinho.

Barcelona's board are understood to regard Mane in the same bracket as Samuel Eto'o, who scored 130 goals in 199 games for the club from 2004 to 2009.

However, any move for the Liverpool man would be complicated by a clause in the contract which took Coutinho from Anfield to Camp Nou last year.

As part of that deal, Liverpool stipulated that Barcelona would have to pay an additional €100m (£89m) if they signed any more of their players before 2020.

The report claims that the Spanish giants have not completely ruled out the possibility of paying that penalty, but are more likely to wait until next year before making their move.

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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool108111961325
2Manchester CityMan City1072121111023
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest10541147719
4Chelsea105322012818
5Arsenal105321711618
6Aston Villa105321715218
7Tottenham HotspurSpurs1051422111116
8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton104421714316
9Fulham104331413115
10Bournemouth104331312115
11Newcastle UnitedNewcastle104331010015
12Brentford104151920-113
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd10334912-312
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham103251319-611
15Leicester CityLeicester102441418-410
16Everton102351017-79
17Crystal Palace10145813-57
18Ipswich TownIpswich100551021-115
19Southampton10118719-124
20Wolverhampton WanderersWolves100371427-133


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