Mohamed Salah’s new contract is the perfect outcome for all involved with Liverpool and delivers confirmation that both parties in this sporting marriage simply cannot live without each other.
Salah, even though he is 33 in June, would have received lucrative offers from elsewhere had he decided to leave Anfield on a free transfer when his current £350,000-a-week agreement ends at the conclusion of this season.
The availability of this world-class talent, as driven as ever and seemingly still at the peak of physical powers, would have attracted the attention of the biggest European names as well as sparking renewed interest from the Saudi Pro League, that arguably prizes the signing of Salah above all others when measured by current global profile.
It was on 24 November, after scoring twice in a 3-2 win at Southampton, that Salah claimed he was “more out than in” at Liverpool and had yet to receive a formal contract off.
He had already sounded the alarm bells among supporters in September by suggesting after the 3-0 victory at Manchester United that this might be his final season at Anfield.
Salah has, instead, extended his time at Liverpool and a love affair that began almost from the moment he scored his first goal for the club following a £34m move from AS Roma, a bundled effort in a 3-3 draw at Watford on the opening day of the 2017-18 season.
For Liverpool owner’s Fenway Sports Group (FSG), it keeps hold of a player the fans instantly crowned “the Egyptian King”, while demonstrating it is willing to bend from a “Moneyball” philosophy that has previously made it reluctant to award lucrative deals to over-30s.
Salah’s form and fitness makes him a special case, something FSG has readily acknowledged.
And for head coach Arne Slot, who has made a seamless transition from the Jurgen Klopp era with Liverpool on course for a 20th title, he can plan for the future with an Anfield icon and one of the great stars of the modern era.
It is all a far cry from Salah’s first appearance in front of Liverpool’s fans, as a shadow Chelsea player drafted into a weakened team fielded by Jose Mourinho on 27 April 2014, a game remembered for Steven Gerrard’s slip and a 2-0 loss that cost the Reds great the chance of an elusive Premier League winners’ medal.
Salah had rejected Liverpool to move to Chelsea from Basel four months earlier but made little impact, scoring only two goals in 19 appearances with 10 starts at Stamford Bridge.
He even heard ironic cheers from the Kop that day when he was booked for fouling Raheem Sterling.
Since then, it has only been adulation for Salah, who now gets the chance to write new chapters in his legendary Liverpool story.
Salah arrived at Liverpool with a reputation as a gifted player, although an occasionally wayward finisher.
The dedication and desire was always there as he proved when he was 14, travelling more than four hours by bus, sometimes changing five times, from his home to train with Arab Contractors, then taking the same return journey.
It soon became clear Liverpool had acquired a player with pace, skill and a priceless ability to score and create goals from a starting position wide on the right.
As an individual, Salah has always kept a low profile, as Murat Yakin – the Switzerland coach who worked with the Egyptian at Basel – told BBC Sport after his astonishing early impact at Anfield: “Mo is very humble and modest. He is really down to earth and also sympathetic off the pitch. But on the pitch he is a leader, smart and aggressive in a good way.”
After Salah scored in the 2013 Europa League quarter-final win against Tottenham, Yakin said: “If Mohamed could score as well, he would not be here any more.”
And when he did start scoring, Yakin was proved right.
He left for Chelsea, where he only played 530 minutes in the league, before loan spells at Fiorentina and Roma, signing permanently for the latter prior to going to Liverpool.
