“I know that I am a legend”
© Imago
With 28 goals and 18 templates, Mohamed Salah (32) led FC Liverpool to the championship for the second time after 2020 – a very special one for the Egyptian. “I said to Virgil: Without getting away from someone – winning the title without Jürgen, Bobby, Sadio, Hendo and the boys from 2020.
In an interview with “France football“The attacker, who is on the way to the balloon d’Or, spoke about his legend status, he also revealed what the Liverpool fans mean and what it felt like to play the best season of his career without knowing whether he is getting a new contract.
On the remaining three Premier League match days, Salah could have 30 hits and 20 assists. If he succeeds, he would be the second footballer to Lionel Messi, who brings these brands together in a top 5 league in Europe in one season. This was achieved by the eight -time world footballer 2010/11 and 2014/15 for FC Barcelona.
Salah about contract poker: “If the club does not want to extend – no problem”
When asked whether he feels like a Liverpool legend, the Egyptian said: “No, I am sure that I am a Liverpool legend! Seriously: I am still active, train, prepare myself, play. And at home I concentrate fully on my family. So I don’t really have the time to feel it. But if you ask me-yes, I know that I am a legend, despite all the uncertainty. About my extension, the fans saw that I gave everything.
The contract poker between Salah and the Reds run throughout the season. In winter he indicated that he was expecting a farewell. “I played the best statistical season of my career. The possibility that it could be my last season may have made me enjoy it at the most to enjoy and give everything to get the promised title. I had the attitude: if the club does not want to extend – no problem. Then we end it as best as possible so that I can go through the front door.” Salah has kept his promise to win a championship for the Liverpool fans that can be celebrated together on the Anfield Road. In the title 2020, this was not possible due to the corona pandemic.
For Salah, who has been running for the Reds since 2017, the Anfield Stadium is something very special: “There is a place that I particularly love-the right side, where we usually play the first half, not before the Cop. I don’t know why, maybe because I have been starting my games there for eight years and always see the same faces. I am missing our team manager whether everything is fine.
According to Salah, the energy for the very big litter had been missing in the last two seasons under coaching legend: “In the end we might be a bit too comfortable under Jürgen. Arne and his team are more open to conversations, for the exchange of impressions – that was important for my services. And above all: it led us to success.” Klopp successor Slot took over a well-coordinated team that did not record any new additions in the summer of 2024.
“I would not have thought that we would win so quickly. Nobody would have predicted? Nobody, I think. In preparation, Arne came to me and asked me to be a role model for the others. I told him that he shouldn’t worry – I always give everything, not to be a role model, but because I am so,” said Salah. An important step on the way to this mentality was a dinner in Rome.
“I tell you something that I have never said before: This famous year in Rome I was with my consultant in the restaurant and he said, ‘If you go somewhere else, I am sure that one day you can win the balloon d’Or.’ I thought: ‘What does he talk about? That says a lot about how I went home. I don’t know why, but I also wanted to see something in me.
This was followed by the 42 million euro transfer from the sunny cosmopolitan city of Rome to the rainy Liverpool. “Yes, that was quite a change. But do you know what? I like very cool temperatures – don’t ask me, why,” said Salah with a laugh. “Yes, I know I come from Egypt, that makes no sense, but I hate heat. And as far as the rest is concerned: I was so excited to sign at Liverpool that I honestly didn’t think much about architecture or gastronomy.”
In his first season, the attacker in the Premier League shone with 32 goals and eleven templates – these values only outbid in this season, which gave the Reds the 20th championship and brought him a new two -year contract. With just under EUR 25 million, this makes it one of the best paid footballers in the world. His teammate Virgil van Dijk also extended until 2027 and is also said to earn at Salah’s level. Salah is currently in 398 games in the LFC jersey, in the ranking of the players with the most Premier League missions for the record champions he took sixth place.
Until the end of his new working paper, when he stays fit, he will overtake the 500 mark and UA Jordan Henderson (492 games), at the side of which he has accumulated 233 times. For Salah, it is something special to be in the circle of the clubicons, although he does not come from Liverpool or from England: “Liverpool often had idols from his own ranks: Gerrard, Fowler, Owen, Carragher … I did not have the bonus, a scouser (person from Liverpool, i.e. Red.) to be honest in the past eight years.