This is the most important trophy of my career - Sadio Mane on winning the AFCON

Sadio Mane's winning penalty earns Senegal first ever AFCON title

West Africa close in on North Africa after Senegal's triumph

My teammates inspired me after my penalty miss - Sadio Mane

Senegal superstar, Sadio Mane has expressed his delight after leading his country to win the 2021 Africa Cup Nation in Cameroon.

The UEFA champions league winner while in his joyous mood labelled the AFCON as the 'best trophy' of his life.

Sadio Mane made amends for his penalty miss in regulation time when he powerfully slotted in Senegal's final penalty to seal the win.

Speaking after the game, an ecstatic Mane named Sunday, February 6, 2022, as the 'best day' of his life.

“It is not the most important trophy but it is the most important day of my life, the best day of my life, and of course so far, the best trophy of my life. I can’t express my feeling today, I’m very happy,” he said.

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When asked about his penalty miss inside the first 10 minutes of the game, he said although he was disappointed with the miss, his teammates inspired him with their words at halftime.

“I was not happy because I most of the time score penalties but I think a big difference today was my teammates, after missing the penalty everybody came to me in the dressing room [and told me] 'Sadio we don’t care what happened. We lose together, we win together. We push together and we are going to make it'. And in the end when I was going to shoot the second penalty, they all came to me ‘we trust you, go and do it’ I think that made the difference. I think that was the strength today because it gave me more motivation to shoot and score and I did it for the people,” he added.

Senegal beat Egypt 5-2 on penalties after the match was scoreless in 120 minutes.

The Teranga Lions are now the fourth West African side to win the competition, taking the regions total to 10- Ghana(4), Nigeria (3), Ivory Coast (2), and now Senegal(1).

The North African region has the most trophies, 11- Egypt(7), Algeria (2), Morocco(1), and Tunisia(1).