After months-long anticipation and controversy, Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool winger, is believed to be close to signing a new long-term contract with his English team that will keep him at Anfield until the end of his career.
Salah was reportedly ready to give up his initial demands to match Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo’s salary of £500,000 a week.
The Egyptian international player’s shirt in Liverpool topped the list of the 10 best-sellers for the Reds during the current season. The Liverpool Echo newspaper confirmed that Liverpool earned £70m annually from selling Salah’s shirt, through the club’s official stores.
The English newspaper added that Liverpool gets £30m every football season, starting from August until June, from selling Salah’s shirts.
After Salah became a legend at Anfield, breaking many records, the Egyptian pharaoh wanted to complete his successful journey with the team. Similar players, such as Messi and Ronaldo, have not succeeded when they left their teams, whether in Real Madrid or Manchester United for the Portuguese star, or Barcelona for the Argentine flea. Similarly, Liverpool’s former star Coutinho did not succeed when he joined Barcelona, but the Brazilian star started to grab attention again when he returned to the English Premier League with Aston Villa. Coutinho, 29, played 106 games with Barcelona, scoring only 25 goals and contributing to 14 others.
Another example, Sergio Ramos was the captain of Real Madrid and one of the most prominent defenders who ever played in the Santiago Bernabeu, but he decided to leave his “home” and joined Paris Saint-Germain. However, the Spaniard suffered frequent injuries and rarely played with the French team. Some press reports revealed that Ramos received an offer from the American Los Angeles Galaxy. The 35-year-old star played only four matches in the French League and five in total with the Paris giant.
Real Madrid faced a similar problem with Chelsea’s former star Eden Hazard. He had the worst run of performance in his career with Real Madrid since he joined in the summer of 2019. He even lost his place in the starting line-up for long periods due to frequent injuries and low performance. French press reports revealed that Paris Saint-Germain aimed to sign the Belgian midfielder during the upcoming summer transfer window.
Salah joined Liverpool on 22 June 2017. His brilliance in his first season with the Reds helped him win many personal awards. They finished fourth in the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League runner-up after losing the final to Real Madrid 3-1. Salah was injured in the final.
He did not win any trophies with the Reds in the first season, but on the individual level it was a year full of achievements, as he won the Golden Boot, the Best Player of the season, and the Puskas Award for the best goal. He also broke the goal scoring record held for some time by Cristiano Ronaldo. Salah managed to score the most goals (32) in one Premier League season. He scored 44 goals with Liverpool in all competitions during the 2017/2018 season, becoming the fastest player in the history of the Reds to score 40+ goals in only 45 matches.
He won his first title with the Reds after defeating Tottenham 2-0 in the 2018/19 Champions League final. In the same year, he won the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
Salah has played 240 games with Liverpool so far in all competitions, during which he scored 153 goals and contributed to 57 others. He is currently one of the best football players in the world.
In 2021, Salah ranked seventh in the Ballon d’Or award presented by France Football magazine, while Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo came sixth. In 2018, Salah ranked sixth in the Ballon d’Or award, with 188 points. In 2019, he ranked fifth among the list of the best players in the world in a historic and unprecedented achievement by an Arab player. At the time, the Egyptian pharaoh got 178 points. In 2020, the award was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
