MO SALAH has spent his entire career proving people wrong.
Yet for Liverpool’s brilliant, 32-year-old talisman, to be crowned the best player on the planet would be his greatest achievement – for a variety of reasons.
Mo Salah has been the star of the Premier League this season[/caption]
He flopped when he first came to England at Chelsea[/caption]
Jurgen Klopp originally was not keen on signing the Egyptian forward[/caption]
From being a Chelsea flop and then not wanted by Jurgen Klopp to becoming one of Liverpool’s greatest players while firing Arne Slot to a stunning debut season with 30 goals.
And we’re only in February.
It is inevitable that Salah will collect his second Premier League winners’ medal after Sunday’s 2-0 win at Manchester City but could he pip Real Madrid’s Viniscius Junior to the Ballon d’Or later this year?
It is difficult to believe that 11 years ago last month, Salah joined Chelsea from Basel for £11m but in his two years at Stamford Bridge made just six Premier League starts and scored only two goals.
This was because he spent most of his time away from Merseyside on loan at Fiorentina and Roma.
Although fingers have always pointed at Jose Mourinho, who was in charge for much of the time when Salah was a Chelsea player, the Portuguese coach said: “For a start, people try to identify me as the coach that sold Salah. I am the coach that bought Salah. It’s completely the wrong idea.
“I pushed the club to buy him and at the time we already had fantastic attacking players—Hazard, Willian, we had top talent there. But I told them to buy that kid.”
Salah was sold once Mourinho had left the club and proved to be a huge hit for Roma in a £12m move.
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But after shining in Serie A, he returned to England for £34m in 2017 yet incredibly, the move was not initially wanted by Liverpool manager Klopp.
Klopp’s first preference was to sign German international Julian Brandt from Bayer Leverkusen.
Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool stats
Mohamed Salah has been a constant star since his arrival at Anfield in 2017…
Appearances: 387
Goals: 241
Assists: 109
Trophies: Premier League x1, FA Cup x1, League Cup x2, Community Shield x1, Champions League x1, Uefa Super Cup x1, Fifa Club World Cup x1
Instead, Liverpool’s head of recruitment at the time Dave Fallows was the person who insisted on the club signing Salah.
Yet the Egyptian was an instant sensation, scoring 44 goals from 52 games.
Yet, he did not necessarily enjoy a close, warm relationship with Klopp. It was more professional and cordial than anything.
There were occasions during his spell on Merseyside when Salah was clearly hoping for a move to Spain, hence a couple of interviews with Spanish sports paper Marca.
This was a surprise because he has barely ever spoken to the English media apart from brief TV interviews directly after matches when, most of the time, he was handed the man-of-the-match award.
Even last season, Salah argued with Klopp on the touchline during the 2-2 Premier League draw with West Ham.
Afterwards, he said he claimed if he spoke “there will be fire” which clearly illustrated the relationship was not totally harmonious.
By then, Salah knew Klopp would be heading off into the sunset and few people would have expected the forward to shine like this season under new boss Slot.
Salah was one of the three musketeers alongside Bobby Firmino and Sadio Mane. Yet when his brilliant attacking unit started to break up, some Liverpool fans wanted to keep the other two.
Even at the start of this season, there were some supporters who felt that maybe, it was time for Salah to move on once his contract expired this summer.
Now, though, there is not a single person connected with the club who wants their talisman to leave. Despite the mega money offers from Saudi Arabia, Salah – surely – will remain a Liverpool player.
So that means he will still be on Merseyside when we have the Ballon d’Or awards later this year.
There was a huge outcry in Madrid when Manchester City midfielder Rodri pipped Viniscius to the award last October. The weird thing was that everyone in Spain seemed to forget that it was actually Jude Bellingham who won the La Liga player-of-the-year award.
But Real officials made the decision to boycott the awards. And because they have made such a fuss, you would expect Brazilian star VIniscius to be a firm favourite for this year, albeit for the wrong reasons.
So if Salah is to win the accolade this year, he might actually have to lead Liverpool to success in the Champions League final in Munich on May 31.
It seems a bit unfair but that is what he is facing. But equally, anyone betting against this remarkable footballer could be proved wrong.
Again.
