Red Bull Salzburg sporting director Christoph Freund is proud to see Sadio Mane succeed with Liverpool.

Freund spotted and signed Mane from Metz six years ago.

"Sadio (Mane) is one of the best players in the world," Freund told the Mirror

"(Lionel) Messi was not happy with the fourth place - and they [Liverpool] won the Champions League. [He's] an outstanding successful story."\

"We saw a lot of potential. We saw his movements, his speed, he was so hungry to score goals.

"When we then met him personally he was really clear and he wanted to make the next step.

"But it was not easy, it was a different language, a different culture. I can remember very well when he first started here it was very interesting progress.

"In the end if you sign a player... also like Erling Haaland, you see at 16, 17, an outstanding mentality, an outstanding left foot, but you never know, you can't be 100 per cent sure he's going to develop like this. Also with Sadio it was like this.

"We always see a lot of things in the future, sometimes small things on the pitch, and you say 'Wow! It looks so easy when you make this movement' and so on.

"Also very important again is the mentality... how is the player outside the pitch? How is he in training? How is his reaction when he loses a game? How is he with his teammates? This is very important for us.

"I always say mentality is more important than talent."