I want to stay at Liverpool for rest of my career, says Salah

Striker seeks new contract but future ‘depends on the club’ Klopp revives penalties row ahead of United clash tomorrow

Mohamed Salah has declared he would like to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career – but insisted his future “depends on the club”.

The statement is the clearest indication yet that Salah, whose deal runs out at the end of next season, wants to sign a new contract, although it remains to be seen whether Liverpool will meet his demands.

“If you ask me, I would love to stay until the last day of my football career, but I can’t say much about that – it’s not in my hands. It depends on what the club want, not on me,” Salah said.

In an interview with Sky Sports, the 29-year-old added: “At the moment, I can’t see myself ever playing against Liverpool. That would make me sad. It’s hard, I don’t want to talk about it, but it would make me really sad.

“At the moment, I don’t see myself playing against Liverpool, but let’s see what will happen in the future.”

Despite Salah’s positive comments, there are no talks taking place between his representatives and Liverpool, although the club have made it clear that they want him to stay.

It is understood that Salah, who is in outstanding form with 12 goals in 11 games this season, is hoping to agree a new contract that pays around £400,000 a week, which would represent a significant increase on his current terms.

However, Salah would argue it reflects his importance to the club and his status as arguably the best player in the world at present.

Ahead of tomorrow’s Premier League fixture away to Manchester United, manager Jurgen Klopp said he hoped Salah would see out his career at Liverpool and was capable of playing for many more years such was his professionalism.

Asked whether Salah could emulate Cristiano Ronaldo by playing at the top level at the age of 36, Klopp said: “I think the professionalism of both is the one thing you can compare 100 per cent. Probably the same.

“Mo is incredibly professional. He’s the first in [at training] and very, very often the last out. All the players are constantly interested in the things he can do, he has to do, to improve or to keep the standard. I think he still has a lot to give. One hundred per cent.”

The Liverpool manager rekindled the row over United being awarded more penalties than his team – and

ridiculed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s suggestion that he had influenced referees.

The Liverpool manager was asked about Solskjaer’s claim that United were getting fewer penalties since Klopp questioned the number they had received.

In January, Klopp complained that United “had more penalties in two years than I had in 5½ years”. That prompted Solskjaer to state that there had been fewer decisions in his side’s favour since the intervention from a “certain manager”. In fact, five of United’s 11 penalties last season came after Klopp’s outburst, something he pointed out, adding: “I think between what I said and what Ole said, they had five penalties and we had two.

“So… and we all know, come on, that we cannot influence refs by things like that. But having the amount of penalties that United had before that was quite exceptional. They are good, they go in the box, they have these kind of situations but we have them as well and have not got even a similar amount of penalties. It’s just facts, who cares, it’s done.”

This season, Liverpool have been awarded just one penalty, as have United. Solskjaer complained after two strong appeals were turned down against West Ham last month that Klopp had made “decisions… more difficult to give” in favour of his players.

The row adds to the eagerly anticipated encounter, with secondplaced Liverpool – who have Curtis Jones fit although Thiago Alcantara is still out injured – four points clear of United and having scored 30 goals in their past nine games.