Senegal international, Sadio Mane, won the first Socrates Award during the Ballon d’Or award ceremony held on Monday night at the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris.
He clinched the first Socrates Award for his humanitarian work in his homeland.
The prize is named after Brazil football icon Socrates – who co-founded the Corinthians Democracy movement, in opposition to the ruling military government in 1980s Brazil.
Notwithstanding his hectic schedule on the field of play, the reigning African Player of the Year continues to touch lives, especially in Senegal.
The Bayern Munich star built a public hospital, and maternity unit at the expense of £455,000, in his home village of Bambali last year.
The inclusion of a maternity unit is particularly important, with the mortality rate in Senegal extremely high at 315 deaths per 100,000 births. That’s nearly 30x higher compared to the UK, who have 13.4 per 100,000.
Mane has also spent £250,000 on funding a free to attend secondary school in the area and provided laptops for the best performing students, as an added incentive to try their hardest.
He also donated to the Senegalese National Committee to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
A petrol station has been built, a post office is under construction, and he gives $70 per month to each family in the village as way of supporting them.
Finally, Mane has installed 4G internet connection to better improve connectivity between isolated areas of rural Senegal.
Despite his fame and fortune, one thing fans have always admired about Mane is his humble nature.
And that was on display once again on Monday evening when he accepted the Socrates award.
“First of all, I want to say good evening, everybody,” Mane said to the crowd.
“Myself, I am really happy to be part of you guys tonight. Of course, like you say, sometimes I am a little shy to talk about it, but I’m really happy to do what I can for my people and to make things better.”
