Incredible route for the striker transferred by Bayern Munich from Dinamo Bucharest, at the request of Sadio Mane

Desire Azankpo Segbe (31 years old), the striker transferred by Bayern Munich from Dinamo Bucharest in the summer of 2022, at the request of Sadio Mane (32), has recently arrived in the second tier of football in Poland.

After a few months on the sidelines, Azankpo signed with Kotwica, the 20th-placed player in the said championship. The international from Benin made his debut with a goal, but subsequently did not find his place in the team.

What is happening with Desire Azankpo, Sadio Mane’s protégé who left Dinamo Bucharest for a transfer to Bayern Munich

Desire Azankpo Segbe is a well-known figure in Romanian football, after in the second half of the 2021-2022 season he was registered with Dinamo Bucharest and even managed to score a goal in the “dogs” shirt, in the two checked appearances.

Azankpo was officially introduced to Dinamo in the last days of January 2022, but he did not last long against the red-white grouping. In the summer of the same year, at the end of the season, Desire Azankpo left Dinamo and signed with Bayern Munichafter star Sadio Mane specifically requested his transfer.

Azankpo was obviously not brought in as a first-team solution for the Bavarians, but he ticked off numerous games in Bayern’s second team and even impressed with several goals while also becoming captain. But after Sadio Mane fell out with the Bavarians and chose to go to Saudi Arabia, to Al-Nassr, Azankpo’s situation also changed. The Benin international left Bayern in September 2023 and joined RFC Seraing in Belgium. In its shirt, he scored two goals in a total of 11 appearances, but his contract was not extended in the summer.

The former footballer of the “dogs” remained without an agreement for several months, but at the end of September, Desire Azankpo clapped hands with Kotwica, a formation that evolves in the second echelon of Poland.

On September 29, 2024, he made his debut, managing to score an important goal in the match Legnica – Kotwica Kolobrzeg 1-1, but in the last three games of the championship he did not find himself in the squad of the Polish group.

Desire Azankpo Segbe: “Sadio Mane is my brother!”

Desire Azankpo Segbe has known Sadio Mane since they both played for Generation Foot, a group from Senegal, the former Liverpool and Bayern Munich star’s home country.

Later, they both ended up at FC Metz in France. But, from there, only one’s career exploded, and that was Sadio Mane. The latter soon made the move to RB Salzburg, then to Southampton, and finally to Liverpool in 2016.

Instead, after his time at Metz, Azankpo had a brief stint in Holland before returning to France to play in the lower echelons. He also played for FK Senica, from Slovakia, or for Oldham Athletic, from England.

Sadio Mane is my best friend, he’s my brother. Because, in fact, our relationship goes beyond friendship. We’ve come a long way together… We met at Generation Foot, in the 2009-2010 season. And back then, the club’s facilities weren’t what they are today… We lived in poor conditions. We had a decent land, but in terms of food and accommodation… Sometimes it was very difficult. But we supported each other, me and Sadio, we supported each other a lot. And that brought us very close, of course. Sadio was a protector for me, yes. He arrived shortly before me at Generation Foot. They spoke a lot of Wolof (no – a language found in Senegal and Mauritania mainly) and I didn’t speak it. Sadio translated for me, and when some people started laughing at me – without being mean, because there were only good guys there – he defended me. That’s how Sadio has always been and we’ve been close the whole time. We were really glued to each other,” Desire Azankpo said, among others, as quoted by BeSoccer.