When in Rome, Mohamed Salah built a training pitch in his back garden and hired a personal ‘striker coach’ to help him take the next step and add more goals to his game.
It was a friend of his agent, Ramy Abbas, the Colombian-born lawyer and close ally who has shaped his career more than most. The coach was Jaime Pabon, a former midfielder for Medellin-based team Atletico Nacional. One thing Pabon noticed was that Salah would often be in the right place at the right time, yet be let down by his decision-making. It was something Liverpool saw, too – he was getting the chances, just not putting them away.
Salah wanted this to change. After forensically analysing clips of every chance the forward had – at Basel, Fiorentina and now Roma – Pabon concluded that Salah would rush because he was out of breath, and thus take a panicked shot or pass.
So they worked on his breathing. He would alter when he took breaths so that when he reached the edge of the penalty area – the position he would typically unleash one of his laser-guided shots – he wasn’t gasping for air. The results were tangible and immediate.
‘Mohamed is a wonderful, noble, and dedicated person,’ Pabon tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘He has a humanitarian character, and together we learned to have no limits in our aspirations in life.
‘Being great requires effort and sacrifice, and life has always rewarded his great triumphs, leading him to be recognised as one of the best players in the world.
After forensically analysing clips of every chance Mohamed Salah had at Basel, Fiorentina and Roma, Jaime Pabon concluded that he rushed shots and passes because he was out of breath
It was something Liverpool saw, too – he was getting the chances, just not putting them away
‘I have many anecdotes, great memories, happy moments and difficult moments. Sometimes playing and making the work fun, his smile when something didn’t go well and we knew it could be improved, and some tears in the most difficult moments. But there was always respect and admiration, always attention to the future goals.
‘I had a wonderful experience with him, both as a great athlete and as an excellent person. I have great admiration for his dedication and attentiveness… he was always willing to follow instructions to improve and grow.’
The pair also worked on his positioning, timing of runs and how to get into more dangerous areas on the pitch. At Roma, he was playing with the experienced former forward Edin Dzeko, who had won leagues in multiple countries, including twice with Manchester City. The Bosnian is often misremembered as an old-fashioned target man due to his tall frame but he was adept at coming short, allowing Salah to run in behind.
For Salah, building the training pitch in his back yard was his first meaningful step in taking control of his own career. He believed that being a footballer was not a job but a vocation and he spent every waking hour thinking about how to better himself.
Those close to him say that, if he could have done so, he would have built these facilities in Egypt, too. Funds were different in Italy, hence his additional projects in the Casal Palocco suburb of Rome, a theme that has continued in north-west England.
His house here, in the same neighbourhood as fellow fitness freak Erling Haaland, is kitted out with two gym rooms, cryotherapy facilities and a hyperbaric chamber. He also has a private chef.
In layman’s terms, cryotherapy is the use of ice-led machines to decrease swelling by constricting blood vessels, while a hyperbaric chamber has air pressure levels three times higher than normal conditions to help the lungs spread more oxygen around the body.
Broccoli and other ‘superfoods’ are often on the menu – he likes the Egyptian specialty koshary – and as a Muslim, Salah has never touched alcohol. For breakfast, he might have porridge and walnuts with honey and raisins.
Salah is intensely professional about his preparation and fitness – and the results show
He works relentlessly in the gym, and has installed a hyperbaric chamber and cryotherapy facility at his home
‘I had a wonderful experience with him, both as a great athlete and as an excellent person. I have great admiration for his dedication and attentiveness’
During Ramadan, when he cannot eat from sunrise to sunset, he alters his routine to do a 2am gym session. Fatty foods are rare but he does allow a ‘cheat day’ pizza, and sleep is his best friend. If Liverpool are playing an evening game, he will often have an afternoon nap.
A large portion of his Instagram pictures are of him in the gym, often alone, and Salah has taken inspiration from the likes of Novak Djokovic and LeBron James, both of whom have enjoyed incredible longevity.
As he leaves Liverpool this summer, the Egyptian believes there are still several years left in the tank. ‘I see what he does to keep his body as it is, I think there are many more years inside of him to play,’ said Arne Slot last season.
Scotland captain Andy Robertson added: ‘Only time will tell but I think everyone knows Mo looks after his body exceptionally well and does everything right. He’s a model professional and someone everyone looks up to. He leaves no stone unturned and that’s why he’s still in incredible shape at the age he’s at.’
Last summer, Salah – yet again, at the age of 33 – was near the top of Liverpool’s fitness tests. As the team were put through their paces by first-team fitness coach Conall Murtagh, Salah was ordered to ‘show the lads how it’s done, show your mentality’ – which he certainly did in a test which measured how far players can run in six minutes.
With Klopp, Liverpool would undergo the dreaded ‘lactate test’, typically dominated by James Milner before he left for Brighton. Overseen by former fitness guru Andreas Kornmayer, players would complete numerous laps around the perimeter of pitches.
They would then have their blood samples measured for lactate, which causes fatigue. ‘It’s horrible,’ said Robertson of the test in 2018. ‘I’m taking the lactate test and I’m thinking, “My stomach’s a bit dodgy here”. I started gagging and I was sick everywhere.’
One thing Kornmayer taught Salah was to work on his core and he said at the time: ‘When you say “stronger” you might think of Arnold Schwarzenegger! But it’s not about muscle mass, it’s about core and robustness.’
A large portion of his Instagram pictures are of him in the gym, often alone, and Salah has taken inspiration from the likes of Novak Djokovic and LeBron James’ longevity
As he leaves Liverpool this summer, the Egyptian believes there are still several years left in the tank
Last summer, Salah – yet again, at the age of 33 – was near the top of Liverpool’s fitness tests
Salah would often have contests with fellow players to see who could do the most sit-ups. The current performance coach Ruben Peeters is big on wacky warm-ups that improve core strength and the Egyptian often practices yoga and pilates at home. He believes that core strength allows him to be more explosive on the counter-attack, turn faster, decelerate quicker and also stave off defenders physically.
It is not just in physicality that Salah reigns supreme, though. He also works on his mentality. He meditates daily and his main hobby is playing online chess. Opponents across the (virtual) board message him asking if he is the real Mohamed Salah – he enjoys messing around with them in reply. He likes fishing, kitesurfing and enjoys regular trips to London on days off, especially when there are exhibitions about ancient Egypt to visit.
After the disappointment of the 2018 Champions League final, he went fishing with his brother and childhood friends – though on his return to Egypt, more than a thousand people were outside his home as his address was leaked on Facebook.
Salah is also a keen reader. When Egypt were knocked out of the World Cup in 2018, he spent the plane journey home reading the self-help book The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*** and one method he learned was to have ‘a coffee with himself’ – talk to the mirror about improvement.
In January 2024 ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, he shared a philosophical passage that read: ‘They want to see you as the normal one, the same as them. Don’t ask, don’t think, don’t feel.’
One thing that Salah practices is visualisation, a trope he nicked from the greatest Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps. Every morning, he sits at the edge of his bed, eyes closed, and imagining certain moments in matches. He could be running through on goal and seeing the whites of the goalkeeper’s eyes, he could be making a dart to the back post for a tap-in, whipping in a cross.
He would also research opposition goalkeepers – whether they would hold their ground or charge out to close the angle, whether they would dive early, how they spread themselves, how they would distribute the ball – so he knew everything about them.
By the time the game comes around, Salah has seen everything already – either in his visualisation or research. It makes him calmer and he doesn’t rush or panic in games, hence why he misses so few one-versus-one chances.
Salah believes that core strength allows him to be more explosive on the counter-attack, turn faster, decelerate quicker and also stave off defenders physically
He would often have contests with fellow players to see who could do the most sit-ups
He is a national hero in Egypt, having led the country back to the World Cup in 2018 after 28 years away from the biggest stage
‘If you really want to improve on something, just do it every day – five, 10 minutes,’ he once reflected. ‘It sounds easy but trust me, it’s not going to be easy if you do it every day. Do it every day and you will see the results at the end.’
Salah is dedicated in every aspect. Heiko Vogel, his manager at Basel, tells Daily Mail Sport: ‘During our first meeting at the hotel, Mo told me he was highly motivated to learn German right away. At the time, I advised him to learn English instead, as I believed it would be more beneficial for his career! Besides, German is much more difficult to learn. In a way, that decision paved the path to the Premier League.
‘From my perspective, my contribution was simply to provide him with a platform at Basel from which he could go on to conquer the football world. Everything required to launch such a career – talent, mentality, and motivation – was already there in Mo.
‘I am proud I was able to accompany him for part of his journey. I am also grateful for the time we shared, because while I may have been able to teach him small things, I learned even more from him myself as a young coach at the time. It was very inspiring. Above all, though, Mo himself can be proud of his career. He has become a legend – and has remained a wonderful human being.’
Salah’s mentality was followed by the squad and many talk of him as the standard-bearer. He is currently worried about those standards dropping so is trying to pass bits on to his good friends Dominik Szoboszlai, Milos Kerkez and others.
Standards might not fall as much as many fear, but it is obvious the Salah who walks through Anfield’s exit door later this week will leave not just a significant hole on the pitch – but also off it. This is not just one of the greatest goalscorers of his generation, but also a super-human athlete.
COMING TOMORROW: Read part four of The Salah Files – The Greatest Season in Premier League History
