Like with so many of his goals for Liverpool, Mohamed Salah recognised the significance. It was January 2020 and Anfield felt edgy and nervous as the hosts attempted to see out a 1-0 lead against Manchester United in stoppage time, when Alisson Becker’s quick thinking sent Salah through on goal, sprinting towards the Kop. Holding off the challenge of Dan James, Salah squeezed his finish under David de Gea, then told every Liverpool fan watching what it meant. Not for the last time when celebrating a goal, Salah whipped off his shirt. But for the first time that season, the Kop responded by chanting, “now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league” – and they did.
It was just one of the 255 goals Salah has scored for Liverpool – the sheer number is astonishing, but it may be the defining one. There was a connection between the “Egyptian King” and his people, an understanding of what they were chasing and the energy it required. Over nine years, Salah and Liverpool lived through the good and the bad, the titles and records along with the defeats and the heartbreak. A transformative figure in modern-day Liverpool, he is undoubtedly one of the greatest players in the club’s history. A proud Muslim, who kissed the turf when celebrating his goals, Salah will also leave Liverpool and England having declared: “My kids are Scousers now”.
Salah’s legacy will be one of achieving remarkable peaks across a ridiculous spell of consistency. His debut season at Liverpool, which brought 44 goals in just 52 appearances after arriving from Roma in June 2017, had many a hit sequel; year after year, in fact. Before this season, Salah had never dipped under 23 goals in all competitions for Liverpool, forming one of the Premier League’s most devastating frontlines alongside Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. He also evolved as a creator, continuing to produce long after Mane and Firmino had left. Last season’s 47 goal involvements in 38 games is perhaps the greatest individual season in Premier League history.
And Salah could be an individual. His extraordinary rant at Elland Road last November, where he accused Liverpool of throwing him “under the bus”, suggested a player who had set himself such extraordinary standards was now struggling to come to terms with his declining powers. That his attacking output has fallen so sharply, so soon after he was the outstanding player in a title-winning side, is why Liverpool and Salah have “reached an agreement” that will bring his nine-year Anfield career to end this summer. It is the right decision, and it allows Salah the opportunity to get the reception he has earned over the final weeks of the season. “You deserve a send-off that reflects your status at LFC – the greatest. Second to none,” wrote team-mate Andy Robertson.
He departs as the third-highest goalscorer in Liverpool’s history, after Ian Rush and Roger Hunt. A Mount Rushmore of Anfield greats, in terms of playing careers, would perhaps have Sir Kenny Dalglish, Rush, Steven Gerrard, and Salah on its face. As a cultural force, Liverpool have never had a player as influential as the Egyptian, which is perhaps why the rare occasions Salah did stop to speak could be so explosive. But his professionalism and dedication to his physical condition ensured he stretched his career to its limits. “Your mentality is second to none and a lot of people could take note,” Robertson added, speaking from inside the dressing room. “You have pushed yourself every single day and always demanded more from yourself and others.”
Curiously, for a player who will depart with such a glowing list of records and achievements, the one thing that Salah could be accused of missing is his record in major cup finals. In the Champions League, he was tormented by Real Madrid; injured, cruelly, by Sergio Ramos in Kyiv in 2018, then denied by Thibaut Courtois in Paris in 2022. His only appearance in an FA Cup final only lasted half an hour, forced off against Chelsea with a groin injury. The chances of ending his Liverpool career with silverware could rest on a pivotal two weeks after the international break, when the Reds face Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-finals.
But Salah scored the opening goal in the final Liverpool had to win, the 2019 Champions League final in Madrid that acted as the turning point for Jurgen Klopp’s great first team. And, in any case, Salah’s greatest ability aside from his goals, assists and devastating speed was in how he read and understood the rhythms of the title race as if he was a fan. In the 2019-20 season, his clinching goal against Manchester United, his favourite opponent, with 16 goals against them, signalled that Liverpool would be ending their 30-year wait for the title. When Liverpool won the Premier League again, Salah celebrated with a selfie in front of the Kop and the missing piece from five years earlier: the supporters.
“I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, this people, would become part of my life,” Salah wrote in his farewell message on social media. “Liverpool is not just a football club, it’s a passion, it’s a history, it’s a spirit.” And Salah, the boy from a small farming village in the Nile Delta, came to realise that better than anyone. The reign of the Egyptian King will live on, long after the sound of his chant dies away.
