Ballon d’Ór 2022: Sadio Mane becomes the first winner of the Socrates Award for his charity work in Senegal

Sadio Mane has received France Football’s inaugural Socrates Award, in recognition of his charity work in his home country in Senegal.

The Bayern Munich forward, who is the reigning African Footballer of the Year, has built a public hospital and funded schools and families in his home village of Bambali in recent years, and also donated to the Senegalese National Committee to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic in his country.

“I’m really happy to be a guest tonight,” Mane said. “Sometimes I’m a bit shy, but I’m really happy to do what I can do for my people to make things better.”

The Socrates Prize is a humanitarian award and acts as a reminder to the players that they are in a privileged position to help do good in the world.

The accolade is named after the late footballer Socrates, who co-founded the Corinthians Democracy movement, in opposition to the ruling military government in 1980s Brazil.