Liverpool confirmed it on Tuesday: Mohamed Salah leaves at the end of the 2025-26 season. The destination will almost certainly be somewhere with nine-figure wages and a warm climate. It will not be South Africa. But stay with us here, because the hypothetical is genuinely worth playing out — and the answer is more interesting than you'd expect.
Which PSL club would actually suit him?
Only one real answer: Mamelodi Sundowns
Sundowns are the only club in South African football with the infrastructure, tactical sophistication, and continental platform that a player of Salah's profile would require. Eight consecutive domestic titles. A CAF Champions League semi-final against Espérance de Tunis next month. A sporting director in Flemming Berg and a head coach in Miguel Cardoso — who cut his teeth at FC Porto and worked under Paulo Fonseca at a serious Shakhtar Donetsk side — who have genuine experience handling top-level talent.
Sundowns' high-possession, structured system is precisely the kind of environment where Salah does his most damage: overloads wide, space in behind, and a team good enough to manufacture those pockets for him. He'd walk in as the undisputed star by a considerable distance, but he wouldn't be walking into chaos. The platform is already there. The one continental trophy that has eluded them since 2016 — another CAF Champions League — could conceivably end up on his CV. That's not nothing.
There's also a layer of sporting poetry here. Sundowns have had memorable battles with Al Ahly, Zamalek, and current Champions League holders Pyramids FC — all from Salah's home country of Egypt. He would know exactly what he was walking into.
Pirates would produce better highlights, but fewer trophies
Orlando Pirates are top of the Betway Premiership after a 6-0 dismantling of TS Galaxy, and this season's Buccaneers are arguably the most entertaining side in the league. Their identity — pace, directness, width — reads like a job description written for Salah.
The atmosphere at Esgodini, with the famous "Ghost" fanbase in full voice, would suit a player who has visibly fed off crowd energy his entire career. The images write themselves.
But head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou's system asks for more defensive contribution from his wide players than Salah has ever been required to give consistently. The fact that Tshegofatso Mabasa — a proven PSL striker — couldn't force his way into Pirates' setup and was loaned to Stellenbosch FC tells you something about how the system is configured. Salah would command more accommodation than Mabasa received, of course. Still, the fit isn't seamless. Pirates are also still chasing their first league title in over a decade, which matters when you're weighing up the final chapter of a career.
Sundowns lead the table by one point but have a game in hand. PSL title odds would shift sharply if the Egyptian King were somehow in either dugout's plans — but the smarter pick remains Ka Bo Yellow.
- Mamelodi Sundowns: Best tactical fit, continental football, elite infrastructure. The logical choice.
- Orlando Pirates: Most exciting environment, best chance of iconic moments, shakier system fit.
- Kaizer Chiefs: Historic club, wrong moment. Two consecutive bottom-half finishes and a rebuild in early stages under co-coaches Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze. The tactical coherence isn't there yet.
- Stellenbosch FC: Gavin Hunt has done a fine job turning around a relegation fight, and he'd give Salah freedom. But Hunt openly rejects data-driven football, which is the opposite of the analytically sophisticated environment that gets the most out of a player this technically nuanced.
None of this is happening. Salah will end up at a club that can pay him what Liverpool were paying him, possibly more. But if you want to argue that South African football has evolved to the point where the question isn't entirely absurd — Sundowns, at least, would make a serious case.
