Didn't like Sadio Mane when I first met him: Jurgen Klopp

Mane had signed on for Liverpool just a year into Klopp's tenure and he has now become a pivotal player for the last year's Champions League winners.

Leeds [UK]: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he did not like Sadio Mane when he met him for the first time as the player looked more of a 'rapper'.

Mane had signed on for Liverpool just a year into Klopp's tenure and he has now become a pivotal player for the last year's Champions League winners.

File image of Sadio Mane

Mane has scored 77 times in 161 appearances in all competitions to help Liverpool to Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup titles.

"I remember my first encounter with Sadio. It was in Dortmund. There was a really young guy sitting there. His baseball cap was askew, the blond streak he still has today," a website quoted Klopp as saying.

"He looked like a rapper just starting out. I thought: 'I don't have time for this'. Our team back then really wasn't bad. I needed someone who could handle not being a starter at the very beginning, someone I could develop," he added.

Senegal star Mane had Klopp's attention long before his 2016 move to Liverpool as the coach revealed that he considered him bringing to Borussia Dortmund squad.

"I'd say I have a pretty good feeling for people, but was I wrong! I further followed his career and continued success at Salzburg. In Southampton he just dominated," Klopp said.

Currently, all football action has come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Before the stoppage of Premier League, Liverpool had moved to the top of the standings and they were just three wins away from winning the title.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said on Monday that the current league topper of EPL, Liverpool, should be awarded the title, even if the campaign is cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Klopp's Liverpool appeared set to secure a first English top-flight title in 30 years when the season was suspended, sitting 25 points clear of second-placed Manchester City.

Earlier, Premier League announced that the 2019-20 season will only return 'when it is safe and appropriate to do so'.

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has reached 14.3 lakh with more than 82,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.