Online Reporter
LONDON. – Mohamed Salah will leave Liverpool this summer as one of the greatest players ever to represent the club and to grace the Premier League.
Salah’s statistics deliver the evidence – but so much more lies beneath the numbers for the iconic Anfield figure labelled the ‘Egyptian King’ by his adoring followers on the Kop.
He arrived at Liverpool from AS Roma on 23 June 2017 for £34m, a fee now resembling an act of grand larceny when set against what he subsequently achieved.
Salah, like another eventual Premier League great in Kevin de Bruyne, had been at Chelsea but failed to make an impact, scoring two goals in 19 appearances, with only 10 starts.
Salah has provided memories to last a lifetime for Liverpool and their global fanbase as he has helped add the Champions League, two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, EFL Cup, Uefa Super Cup and Fifa Club World Cup to Anfield’s honours board.
As he prepares to take his leave, Salah has scored 255 goals in 435 games for Liverpool. This puts him third on the club’s all-time list of scorers, behind Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
In the Premier League, he has made 310 appearances for Liverpool, with 189 goals and 92 assists. This total of 281 goal contributions is the biggest for one club in Premier League history, five more than Wayne Rooney for Manchester United.
Salah possessed the selfish, ruthless streak that is common among all the greats, but the assists figure alone demonstrates he was also a team contributor.
He put down his marker in a stellar first season, scoring 44 goals and contributing 14 assists in 52 appearances. The campaign ended in tears, however, after he injured his shoulder when challenged by Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos in the Champions League final, lasting only 31 minutes of a 3-1 loss in Kiev.
He only had to wait a year for Champions League final redemption, scoring an early penalty when Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid.
Salah formed one part of an attacking trident that was as potent as anything in world football at the time, alongside Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
Salah’s consistency and fitness was remarkable. His lowest goals total in a full season before this current campaign came in 2019-20 when he ‘only’ scored 23 as Liverpool won the title for the first time in 30 years.
In his Liverpool career, Salah’s win rate from 310 Premier League appearances is 63.9%, while from his total of 435 games it is 62.7% – a reflection of glorious years for club and player.
Salah had his fraught moments with Klopp, as he did latterly with his successor Arne Slot, but they were made for each other as the German’s all-out attacking approach brought the best out of his main marksman.
And after Klopp left, Salah produced a season to rank alongside his greatest.
Salah was at the peak of his footballing and physical powers, scoring 34 goals in 50 starts in all competitions.
It was, then, a surprise how Salah’s form failed him this season, although – like the rest of the club and its supporters – he was left heartbroken by the death of much-loved team-mate Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car crash in July.
Much of Liverpool’s grief remained private, so the full toll this took is unknown, but Salah showed his emotions in the opening Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth at Anfield.
Salah, in one of his rare but usually carefully calculated stops in front of waiting journalists, claimed he had been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and revealed his relationship with Slot had broken down.
When the dust settles, no-one could argue against the simple fact that Mohamed Salah has been one of the greatest players ever to pull on a red shirt. – BBC
Mathew Masinge