Sadio Mane moved to Liverpool because he knew manager Jurgen Klopp could fulfil his potential, his agent has told The Guardian.
Mane has excelled at Anfield since his £30 million switch from Southampton in June and is top scorer so far with 11 goals.
The Senegal international joined Southampton from Red Bull Salzburg in 2014, with Klopp also having looked to sign him for Borussia Dortmund at that time.
"It was the same when he left Salzburg -- we wanted to make the right step in the right club at that moment," agent Bjorn Bezemer said.
"I knew Jurgen Klopp from Germany and thought that he could be the right coach to take him forward after Southampton. You never know what will happen, so it can be a bit of guesswork.
"We tried to find out about Liverpool before he committed himself to them and it is not only the coach, the whole club is top professional. I think it worked out pretty well."
Bezemer added that Mane had received "offers from places like China and Russia" before joining Southampton.
"We said: 'No, now is not the time to make just big money or sitting on a bench in a top club, we want to take a career step,' so he accepted the offer for less money from Southampton because we felt this was the right move at that stage," he added.
"I had a few conversations with the manager and director of football there and they gave us a good feeling. Sadio trusted in the right people, and in the end it paid off.
"Our plan for Sadio has always been to make him Africa's best player. The most important thing was to manage him to take the right decision.
"It's easy to make a fast deal, but we prefer to have a long-term relationship with all of our players."
Liverpool struggled without Mane during January while he competed with Senegal at the African Nations Cup.
The player returned to Merseyside after missing the decisive penalty in a shootout against Cameroon in the quarterfinals.
"Sadio was still quite upset when he got back because he feels a responsibility for his country," Bezemer said.
"But we tried to explain that these things happen in football and you can recover from them quickly."