There are not enough superlatives in the English dictionary to describe this man. But if they were, they would be endless.
Mohamed Salah will go down as one of the greatest players in the club’s history. His brace against Leeds United yesterday saw him score on a fourth-successive opening day and went ahead of the great John Toshack as one of our all-time top goalscorers with 97.
Our Egyptian king is now just three goals away from drawing level with one of Bill Shankly’s boys, Kevin Keegan, who sits on 100 strikes in the famous red shirt.
Who would have thought that a humble man from a small town in Egypt called Nagrig, only the second Egyptian ever to play for us, would have his name in lights as one of the greatest in our history? Not me.
His transfer fee of £34m in 2017, I must admit, did not get me 0verly-excited at the time, due to his poor stint with Chelsea.
But 44 goals from 52 appearances in his first season and helping us reach the Champions League final in Kyiv opened our eyes as to the sort of talent we had on our hands. During that campaign, he was simply unstoppable and rightfully claimed the PFA Player of the Year and the Premier League Golden Boot awards in dramatic fashion.
Salah was setting record after record. But despite this, some mocked him by labelling him as a “one-season wonder“, which derived most recently from Swansea City’s Michu.
But the £108m-rated superstar answered his critics with his feet, finding the net another 22 times in the Premier League during the following season and missed out on the title despite us accumulating an astonishing 97 points. This time, he was forced to share the spoils with the two fellow African talismans of Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his teammate Sadio Mane.
For me, this was more impressive than the first season. He had to eradicate a lot of demons from the defeat to Real Madrid. Not only this, but he made them right as we won our sixth European crown in the Spanish capital and scored the early penalty to help us on our way.
The biggest win of them all was the 2019/20 campaign. The long-awaited Premier League title came to Anfield and another 23 goals in all competition to the Egyptian’s name (per TransferMarkt). Simply sensational.
Sure. He does have his critics. Salah has been described as “greedy” in recent months due to the brief absence of his clinical edge. But his performance against the newly-promoted Leeds showed why he continues to prove those that doubt him wrong.
Salah is far from a one-season wonder. The man is now part of the fabric on Merseyside and has inspired a generation. Is he the club’s greatest No. 11 in history? I think so.
