Last Sunday, Mohamed Salah was once again the center of attention at Liverpool Football Club. First, he helped his club to a Premier League away win in Southampton (3-2 after 1-2) with a late brace. And then the striker surprised everyone with a quick visit to the interview zone. Reporter James Pearce stopped in the magazine The Athletic stated that this was only Salah’s third audience with newspaper reporters in seven and a half years on the River Mersey. This time the 32-year-old appeared on his own behalf: it was about his contract, which was expiring at the end of the season.
So far, Salah complained that he had not received any offer from the club to continue the collaboration. He was disappointed and therefore placed his future “probably more away than here.” He made it bluntly clear that he really wanted to extend the contract. Salah emphasized that he was doing his best, that he adored the fans, that he considered Liverpool to be a club like no other and that he had no plans to end his career any time soon. But staying is not in his hands.
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With his well-calculated statements, Salah has increased the pressure on Liverpool management and triggered a loud response in the football world. His personal situation dominated the reporting before the Champions League top game between Liverpool and Real Madrid (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), it even outshone the tense situation at defending champion Real, who will probably have to win to maintain their chance of direct qualification for the round of 16.
Salah’s contract poker is reminiscent of his last extension in 2022, which was also preceded by tough negotiations. At the time, former coach Jürgen Klopp tried to reassure the fans, whose favorite is Salah: A new contract for the goalscorer is not something you would meet for a cup of tea and a few quickly, Klopp explained at the time. He was probably also alluding to the Egyptian’s financial expectations. Salah’s weekly salary is currently said to be 350,000 pounds, plus bonuses and image rights, allegedly even a million, as his advisor revealed as part of a Harvard Business School study. It can be assumed that, despite his advanced age, Salah is now imagining a multi-year contract with similar remuneration. Only Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne currently earn as much as him in England, both of whom play for Manchester City.
Liverpool FC has so far left Salah’s move uncommented publicly. In principle, the investment company behind the club, Fenway Sports, approaches expensive contractual matters carefully in order not to endanger the salary structure and hierarchy in the team. The contracts of two other key players will also end in June 2025: Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The club and the new sports director Richard Hughes should also be in contact with these two.
Recently, Liverpool’s management team has shown a good instinct when it comes to personnel decisions. The current Premier League leader did not give in to striker Sadio Mané’s pressure for a lavish salary increase and let him move to FC Bayern for 30 million euros a year before the end of his contract. Mané couldn’t cope there and was sold on to the Al-Nassr club in Saudi Arabia after just one season.
His former coach Heiko Vogel raves about how down-to-earth the Egyptian remained as a world-class kicker
However, Salah’s value is higher; he is, in a sense, Liverpool’s totem. With 322 goals in 367 competitive games, he helped the Reds win all relevant titles, including the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League in 2020. Salah has scored at least 23 goals for Liverpool every season – a consistency that only Tottenham’s Harry Kane achieved in England before his move to Munich. Salah is once again demonstrating his strong form this season: the left-footed player has been involved in more than half of all competitive goals so far, thereby contributing to the smooth coaching change from Klopp to Arne Slot. Liverpool dominates both the domestic league and the Champions League as league leaders. Slot recently praised Salah, who you can always trust when things get complicated in the game.
The offensive player is a mixture of goalscorer and winger. His regular position is right winger, his style of play combines speed with wit, determination and elegance. Salah is like a judoka, says Heiko Vogel on the phone, who trained the attacker twelve years ago during his first European stop at FC Basel: When dribbling with his left foot, he has several “world-class grips” that can be used I immediately lost as an opponent, explains Vogel. Salah’s signing in 2017 from AS Roma for 42 million euros was based on Liverpool’s analysis software, which measures the probability of a striker scoring a goal based on routes, passes and shots. Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former data commissioner, revealed New York TimesSalah met “all the criteria” back then.
The basis for his remarkable stay in the world’s top football are his fitness and his character. Although he is sometimes tackled harshly in duels, he has never been out for long. Salah suffered his most serious injury to date in the lost Champions League final in 2018, when he dislocated his shoulder because Real defender Sergio Ramos tackled him to the ground in martial arts style – after which he was only able to play to a limited extent for Egypt at the World Cup. The magazine GQ Salah said he emphasizes stabilization and nutrition, and he practices with resistance bands because they work deep into the muscles.
Despite his global career, Salah appears without any airs and graces. The fact that the striker remained “so down-to-earth, easy-care and authentic” is something he can only take his hat off to, says Heiko Vogel, who was also formerly a youth leader and youth coach at FC Bayern. Compared to his time in Basel, Salah “hasn’t changed as a person,” says Vogel. When they first met, he says, Salah impressed him with “his complete curiosity and openness in his eyes.” This was by no means a given because Salah was already “on his way to stardom” in his homeland. Salah’s breakthrough came with the Egyptian U23 in a friendly against Basel before the 2012 Olympic tournament. After coming on as a substitute, he scored two goals – whereupon the Swiss immediately signed him.
For his compatriots in Egypt, Salah is a role model; the divided nation seems to be able to agree on him as a common denominator. This is probably also because Salah rarely speaks publicly and never makes controversial statements. The fans in Liverpool also revere him as the “Egyptian king” and everyone hopes that he will continue to wear the LFC jersey beyond the season. Heiko Vogel also wants that: Salah is a “unique player who has not yet reached his peak,” he believes. Salah himself confirmed on Sunday that he wanted to “play at the top level for as long as possible”. He brushed aside rumors about leaving for Saudi Arabia, saying he didn’t want to talk about it.
Instead, the poker between Salah and Liverpool now resembles the Egyptian’s favorite hobby: a game of chess. After Salah’s advance, it is now the club’s turn.
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