Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane are two of Liverpool Football Club’s most adored figures.
The duo, along with Mohamed Salah, made up an attacking trident that was revered across Europe until Mane left for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022.
With the lethal front-three as a focal point, the Reds won many honours under Jurgen Klopp including both the Champions League and the Premier League.
And naturally, they formed a great friendship whilst doing so.
That friendship was epitomised best in 2017, when Firmino had the opportunity to steal a tap-in from his teammate Mane, a tap-in that would have warranted Firmino an extra £45k bonus, but he passed up the opportunity to do so.
So, how did it all happen? And more importantly, why would Firmino have passed up the opportunity to earn a mammoth £45k on top of his weekly salary? We’ll explain all below.
How did it happen?
The incident came during Liverpool’s 3-0 thumping of Stoke City in the 2017/18 season.
Mane opened the scoring on the day, chipping the ball over Lee Grant and leaving it seemingly destined to slowly roll into the net.
Firmino duly chased after the ball in order to ensure that it would indeed cross the line, and it slowed down so much that the Brazilian came within inches of bagging in the goal for himself.
But whilst many others would no doubt do exactly that, Firmino chose to shepherd the ball into the net himself, therefore ensuring Mane would receive credit.
VIDEO: Firmino refuses to steal Mane’s goal
Why would Firmino have earnt £45k for scoring?
Well, according to the Mirror, a report from ‘Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football’ claimed that Firmino was working to incentivised bonuses as a supplement to his standard weekly salary of £68,000-per-week.
The report explained that Firmino pocketed £25,000 for each of his first five goals in a season, £45,000 for goals six to 10 and then £65,000 for strikes 11 and beyond.
At the time of the incident, Firmino had recorded a tally of nine goals for the campaign and so would have snatched himself an extra £45,000 had he nipped in and put the ball into the net.
Now, that is the definition of being a team player – hats off to you, Bobby.
