How Salah became the world’s greatest footballer
Forward who burst on the scene in 2017 is in his prime – and scoring at a faster rate, getting more stunning goals, providing more assists and finally eclipsing Messi and Ronaldo
Let us start with Sergio Ramos in Kiev in 2018 – not with the challenge that dislocated Mohamed Salah’s shoulder and prematurely ended the forward’s first Champions League final. Instead, rewind 24 hours and Ramos’s pre-match press conference, when the Real Madrid captain was asked if Salah’s 44-goal debut season at Anfield put him on the same pedestal as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
“Comparing players with Ronaldo and Messi is something you can’t do,” Ramos said. “They’re in another orbit. There are players who are in fashion, those who come and go and others who stay around.”
He was right – world-class status cannot be afforded for one freakishly brilliant campaign. But after four years and 137 Liverpool goals, Salah has long since ridiculed any accusations of him being a “oneseason wonder”.
Today, he is scoring at a faster rate than his 44-goal campaign – every 80 minutes in 2021-22, when it was every 94 minutes in 2017-18. He is having more shots on target per match than at any other time in his career. If he scores against Manchester United tomorrow, he will overtake Didier Drogba’s record for an African of 104 goals in the Premier League, and will have done so in 85 fewer games (167).
Nobody can eclipse Messi and Ronaldo’s numbers season upon season. But of the pretenders to the title of “world’s best”, Salah’s goal and assist rate put him alongside Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema and Erling Haaland in terms of staggering consistency, while the kinds of goals he is scoring – particularly the recent strikes against Manchester City and Watford – simply add depth to the Messi comparisons.
It is also when he scores which matters – like all the true greats, he tends to reserve his best for the elite opponents. In games against other members of the “Big Six”, Salah has 32 goals in 63 games, with 10 assists.
He has given millions to charity as part of the Egyptian foundation set up in his name, funding projects including a girls’ school
Creating more than ever
In August 2019, Liverpool were comfortably beating Burnley. Salah dashed to goal with two options; a simple pass to Sadio Mane for a tapin, or try to score himself.
He chose the latter and missed, prompting a furious reaction from Mane, who had still not calmed down when substituted a few minutes later. Salah and Mane laughed off the incident in the Turf Moor dressing room, but it still sparked a forensic examination of their relationship. That season represented a nadir in terms of the Egyptian creating chances for Mane. The numbers have shot up over the past two campaigns, with last Saturday’s perfectly executed assist at Watford, delivered with the outside of his left foot, maintaining that trajectory.
More generally, Salah’s creativity has hit new heights this season: he is making, on average, 2.34 chances per game – his best return at Anfield – and already has four assists, just two shy of his tally in 2020-21.
Accusations of being too selfish have dissipated, Salah’s decisionmaking reflective of his greater maturity and experience.
His physical condition
Jurgen Klopp may have been openmouthed when Salah danced his way past the Manchester City defence in the recent 2-2 draw, but his most vociferous applause came for a seemingly more mundane move. That was when Phil Foden was terrorising makeshift right-back James Milner, easing towards a shooting position, only for Salah to chase back 40 yards to retrieve possession.
Klopp’s assistant, Peter
Krawietz, hails the “passion” in Salah’s defending, but the basis of that kind of work-rate is primarily physiological and Salah’s physical condition has been transformed. He is a disciple of club nutritionist Mona Nemmer, while some of his closest confidantes at Anfield have been the conditioning coaches led by Andreas Kornmayer, who was recruited from Bayern Munich. Salah was not shy of removing his jersey to exhibit his six-pack after one of his most celebrated goals against Manchester United at Anfield in 2020, and he did the same after scoring against Crystal Palace in September. His sculpted torso is a result of nutrition – more protein and carbohydrates for a player who is naturally lean – and a training programme to gain core strength.
Salah arrives early for training and gym work, and is committed to recovering, mobility and strength sessions. He rarely misses a game – just seven of the 159 Premier League matches since he joined Liverpool – and his robustness is one of his stand-out attributes. He is always able to play.
The ‘Never Give Up’ psychology
It was on the night of Liverpool’s famous comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal, incredibly overcoming a 3-0 first-leg deficit at Anfield in May 2019, that Salah, who was ruled out of the game after suffering concussion, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: Never Give Up.
It is a phrase that could apply to his life story – the kid from Basyoun, who made a daily eight-hour round trip from his village, Nagrig, to train in Cairo, having initially been overlooked by scouts. He never lost that desire to prove himself, and it helps explain his motivation in coming back to the Premier League after his
two years at Chelsea, which featured loans at Fiorentina and Roma, who he joined permanently in 2016.
Why his time at Stamford Bridge did not work out is up for debate. Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s manager at the time, strongly disputes not wanting Salah. In fact, he claims it was his idea to sign him in the first place, on the back of his performances against Chelsea, and it was the club who sold him.
However, tellingly, he also said, “He was just a lost kid in London. He was a lost kid in a new world”, while Eddie Newton, Chelsea’s former loan manager, claimed there was a “personality clash” between manager and player. Either way, it left Salah even more determined.
Cultivating his image
Salah has been represented like a megastar long before he established himself as one, and his general inaccessibility at Liverpool – he rarely speaks to English media – has added to the aura around him. His most trusted adviser, Ramy Abbas, has managed his image carefully and, when he does speak, the outlets tend to be pointed: he has given major interviews to CNN (he is sufficiently popular in the US to warrant a graffiti mural in New York’s Times Square) and Spanish newspapers, most recently Marca in April, which fuelled suggestions he was courting interest from Real Madrid.
His social media is also choreographed – he posts regularly, but never controversially – and his family members are under strict instructions not to speak to journalists. Last weekend, Salah was among the notable guests at the Duke of Cambridge’s Earthshot awards, maintaining the player’s image as a humanitarian beyond the pitch.
Does this matter? It helps when the image is backed up with substance. Salah has contributed millions to charity as part of the
Egyptian foundation set up in his name and which is managed by his father, uncle and brother. In Nagrig he has projects everywhere, including a girls’ school and a building for the ambulance services.
“He is a role model in so many ways,” Klopp said. “It’s really nice to have him, and Sadio. They are both Muslims and they live in a world where these things are so often discussed in a dangerous manner. We know it’s not true but it’s nice to have someone who is full of joy.”
There is still the issue of Salah’s contract to resolve, given it runs out at the end of next season. Liverpool are desperate for the 29-year-old to stay, and will have been heartened by his comments yesterday that he hopes to end his career at the club, but a deal is still some way off.
It will be whether he can fulfil his ambitions at Liverpool that might determine his future; for the time being, Anfield – and English football – should just enjoy what they have.