Senegal striker Sadio Mané says despite his successes with Liverpool, winning the English Premier League title and UEFA Champions League, he had no respect from his countrymen until he won the Africa Cup of Nations.
Mane scored the decisive penalty that helped Senegal defeat Egypt and claim their first ever African title in 2022, and he told Rio Ferdinand in an interview that it was a huge weight off his shoulders.
"When I was young, Senegal never won the African Cup," Mane said in an interview with the former Manchester United and England defender.
"That was the mentality of everybody in Senegal: 'Senegal will never win anything because they go close, they don't win.'"
Before their eventual triumph, Senegal had chased the continent's top football crown for 60 years without success. The closest they came was in 2019 and 2002 when they were losing finalists to Algeria and Cameroon respectively.
Even when they hosted the tournament in 1992, they failed to get past the quarterfinals. Despite a gradual rise following their World Cup qualification in 2002, Mane added that those failures, especially the near misses in the two Finals, had left the country scarred.
Mane said he refused to accept such a defeatist attitude, even before he became a professional football player, and was inspired instead, to be an African champion.
Speaking of his younger self, Mane added: "The time I say, when I become a football player, I will win the African Cup.
"That was something on me, but I don't know how. And I said, I'm not even a football player, but I think like this, that I will win something."
That determination put pressure on him, especially from fans expectations to deliver, pressure which sometimes affected his game: "Before I won the African Cup, sometimes I play bad because of this.
"Because of pressure. Especially of myself. I remember when we went to 2021 African Cup [played in Jan/Feb 2022], I never slept in the night more than five hours.
"And then, that time, I had the biggest problem because I was at Liverpool. And the people in Senegal were expecting, they were talking too much about, 'You only playing good in Liverpool, you play bad in Senegal.'
"I didn't have no respect, I can say. I won Premier League, I won Champions League, but nothing in Senegal. So all this on your shoulder, it's not easy."
Mane, who now plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, added that the pressure of playing in Africa was heightened by real world consequences of failure, where fans could express their unhappiness in less than ideal ways.
He said: " In national teams in Europe, it's OK. But Africa is different. They can burn your house for nothing. Because for them, they don't have big clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, they don't have this. They only have their national team.
"I think people in Europe love the national team, but they love clubs more. But Senegal is the opposite. That's why it's big pressure. So for me, I just had to win that."
All of that pressure was released with victory in 2021/2. President Macky Sall declared the Monday after the final a public holiday, cancelling the last leg of a diplomatic trip in order to greet the team at the presidential palace in Dakar after they returned from Cameroon.
Sall was just as excited as the regular Teranga Lions fan, congratulated the team in a tweet, that read: "What a game! What a team! You did it. Beautiful moment of football, beautiful moment of communion and national pride. Congratulations to our heroes!"
Scoring the decisive penalty elevated Mane to even more legendary status than he already enjoyed among his compatriots, especially after he had missed one early in the game during regulation time.
He added: "To win the African Cup, the pressure for me is over. It's a privilege to be recognised and also be a role model for kids, especially in your country.
"It's just amazing when you're passing on the street, you are in the car or you are somewhere, you see your name on the back -- Mané, Mané, Mané -- everywhere you go.
"I think this is something which just gives you extra motivation to be the role model. That's why I'm always trying to be this kind of person for those kids."
While Senegal gear up to add a second crown when they travel to Morocco later this month, Mane will once again be at the forefront of that chase. But there is a different sort of contribution he has been making in his home town of Bambali.
The forward is renowned for his charity work, helping to fund the construction of a hospital, school, stadium, petrol station and post office over the years, as well as financing the provision of internet services, donating money to the government for COVID relief, providing scholarships and stipends to families.
The striker said it is borne from his own personal experience: "Being just a football player, for me, it's just not enough. I want to be a very, very big impact in my society. In the pitch and out of the pitch.
"Maybe if you came from this, you will do the same because you will know these people condition, how they live, the struggle. That was my case, to give back to those people."