International Champions Cup
Mo Salah’s goal is to be best in world
Mohamed Salah’s quest to be the best begins on Wednesday, far away from Liverpool’s Anfield stadium, several time zones removed from Europe — where he will hope to take the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League by storm for a second consecutive year.
During Egypt’s World Cup campaign, the 26-year-old forward spoke quietly of “wanting to improve and hoping to improve,” which, when you are Mohamed Salah, means only one thing. Becoming the best player on the planet.
This week, he was shortlisted by FIFA for that very title, although his injury-affected struggles in Russia last month probably jettisoned his chances of winning the FIFA player of the year award this year. However, the fact remains that coming out of the last club season, Salah was, by common consensus, no worse than the third-best player in the world, perhaps behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but not by much.
“That is the sort of company he is in now,” former Liverpool forward Ian Rush told USA TODAY on Tuesday. “Ronaldo, Messi and Salah. On his performances, he is on a par with them. Every time you see him play you feel like he is going to score. He must feel that himself. Imagine what the defenders must feel like.”
After injuring his shoulder in an ugly collision with Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos during the Champions League final in May, then willing his way to two appearances for Egypt in its long-awaited return to the World Cup, Salah has had little time to prepare for a new campaign where all eyes will be on him.
He linked up with five-time European champion Liverpool on its preseason tour of the USA this week, where it will face Manchester City in the second game of its International Champions Cup campaign on Wednesday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
According to the Liverpool club website, Salah is “on course to get (his) first minutes” of preseason during the clash with reigning EPL champions.
“He has fully recovered,” head coach Jurgen Klopp said. “We were constantly in contact during the World Cup and he was fine. He looks full of joy and is really happy to be back.”
Salah scored 44 goals in 52 appearances in all competitions last season, while helping Liverpool surge through the Champions League knockout stages while securing a fourth-place EPL finish. He broke the EPL record for goals in a 38-game season with 32.
He is already the highest-profile soccer player to come from the Arab world and is an icon in his homeland and fur- ther afield. But things could get tougher from here, requiring the need for him to step his game up even further.
“We have always had a saying at Liverpool,” said Rush, who won eight league titles with Liverpool and was the club’s top goal scorer eight times. “The easy part is winning something; the hard part is doing it again. And that applies to Mo as well. Defenders will be trying to figure out ways to stop him; everyone knows all about him now. It will be a big challenge, but I am confident he will meet that challenge.
“You look at the character of certain players. He is very humble and he is not the sort of person to be satisfied with what he has achieved so far. You can see he is hungry for more. When you get someone who is already one of the best and is still looking to improve, that is when you get something really special.”
The ICC will see five games played in the U.S. on Wednesday. Borussia Dortmund leads the table on six points from two games, with American youngster Christian Pulisic having helped the German side to a 3-1 victory over Liverpool on Sunday.