Premier League great Salah will leave lifetime of memories
· Yahoo Sports
Mohamed Salah will leave Liverpool as one of the greatest players ever to represent the club and to grace the Premier League.
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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 Kevin de Bruyne, had been at Chelsea but failed to make an impact, scoring two goals in 19 appearances, with only 10 starts.
He turned down Liverpool to join Chelsea when leaving Swiss side Basel in January 2014 - his only Anfield memory before he eventually arrived on Merseyside being a start for Jose Mourinho's side in a 2-0 win there in the following April. It was an encounter infamous for Steven Gerrard's slip and a result that pushed the title towards Manchester City.
Since then, however, 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.
Salah's career started as something of a slow burner at Basel, with coach Murat Yakin hinting at what he could become after he scored in their 2013 Europa League quarter-final win against Tottenham.
Yakin said: "If Mohamed could score as well, he would not be here any more."
He did. And he was not.
Salah progressed at such a rapid rate after leaving Chelsea, first on loan at Fiorentina then a superb spell at AS Roma, that by the time he arrived at Anfield he was the finished article - but it is unlikely that even Jurgen Klopp realised what a talent he had signed.
The first goal Salah scored was a scruffy, bundled effort from on the goalline in a 3-3 draw at Watford on the opening day of his first season. From then on he never stopped scoring.
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.
He raided from the right, Mane patrolled the left, while Firmino could play as a striker or drop deep to add subtle brushstrokes to a fluid, devastating combination.
It was the perfect marriage of pressing, power, skill, pace and threat. Salah and Mane were not always compatible as personalities but on the pitch they were perfectly in tune with each other, aided by the graceful Brazilian 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 was Liverpool's inspiration as they won the Premier League, the club's 20th title, last season [Getty Images]As the era of greats such as Mane and Firmino came to a close, along with other hugely influential figures such as captain Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, Klopp produced a rebuilt team he labelled 'Liverpool 2.0'.
One thing that did not change, even in this new Liverpool iteration, was that Salah was still the match-winner.
Salah had his fraught moments with Klopp, as he did latterly with his successor Arne Slot, especially an angry touchline exchange when West Ham United scored as he was waiting to go on as a substitute in a 2-2 draw at London Stadium in April 2024 - 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 as he embarked on what resembled a personal mission to bring the Premier League, and a 20th title to equal Manchester United's, back to Anfield.
As on so many occasions before, Salah delivered.
Salah was at the peak of his footballing and physical powers, scoring 34 goals in 50 starts in all competitions. He was an unstoppable force as Liverpool won the title with ease, playing a part in ensuring transition from the iconic, fiercely animated Klopp, to the more measured, strategic Slot was seamless in the Dutch head coach's first season.
There was rejoicing among Liverpool fans when he signed a new two-year contract in April 2025. The future seemed set fair.
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 used Jota's trademark goal celebration after scoring Liverpool's final goal in a 4-2 win, then was moved to tears in front of the Kop as he applauded fans following the final whistle when they sang the Portuguese's song.
The subsequent decline in his form resulted in him being dropped to the bench for three successive games in six days, leading to his incendiary interview after he sat and watched a 3-3 draw against Leeds United on 6 December.
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.
Matters were resolved enough for Salah to subsequently make an early appearance as a substitute against Brighton at Anfield the following weekend, feeling the love from fans as he tapped his heart in front of the Kop after a 2-0 win - before departing for the Africa Cup Of Nations with Egypt.
Salah's public spat with Slot and his denunciation of the club brought the heaviest criticism of his time at Liverpool, but any tarnishing was surely temporary as he was soon rehabilitated - albeit not as the force he once was.
The legacy will always be untarnished and intact.
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.