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Yaya Toure says he asked Manchester City to sign Sadio Mane from Southampton when he was at the club.<\/span><\/p>\n He went on to become an integral part of Jurgen Klopp’s side which won the 2019 Champions League and the Reds’ first Premier League title in 2019-20.<\/span><\/p>\n “I always wanted to play with him [Mane],” Toure said.<\/span><\/p>\n Toure spent eight years at City from 2010-2018, winning the club’s first Premier League title and the FA Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n Speaking on Match of the Day Africa: Top 10 about the Premier League’s best African player, the former Ivory Coast midfielder, 40, said: “When I was at City, at the time when he was at Southampton, I highly regarded him and I was asking some of my superiors to just sign him. But in the end it just didn’t happen.<\/span><\/p>\n “After that Klopp had the eyes to get him and now look what he did for Liverpool, he was brilliant. I like him, I like him as a player.”<\/span><\/p>\n Mane joined Bayern Munich in June 2022 for \u00a335m after scoring 120 goals in 269 games and winning six major honours at Anfield.<\/span><\/p>\n Toure says the Senegal captain is a “big example” for his work outside of football.<\/span><\/p>\n In March 2020 Mane <\/span>donated \u00a341,000 to his national committee<\/span><\/a> fighting against coronavirus. He also <\/span>donated 300 Liverpool shirts<\/span><\/a> prior to <\/span>Liverpool’s 2018 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid<\/span><\/a> for locals in his hometown of Senegal to wear during the game.<\/span><\/p>\n “The way he deals with things smoothly and the support he gives back to his people in his country is incredible, with what he’s been involved with,” Toure added.<\/span><\/p>\n “Some days I get mad when I read media about him and a journalist will ask him, ‘Why don’t you have a Ferrari and things’, and he says, ‘No, I don’t need it, I prefer to have a normal car than have a Ferrari’. <\/span><\/p>\n “Two months later we see him, he’s been doing things back in his home country, he’s a big example.”<\/span><\/p>\n