"I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, these people, would become part of my life." Mohamed Salah said that sitting in front of a trophy cabinet that he largely filled himself. Now he's gone — or near enough — confirming his Liverpool exit at season's end after nine years and a career that genuinely defies compression into bullet points.
189 Premier League goals for Liverpool. 92 assists. A combined 281 goal contributions at one club — more than anyone in the competition's history, five clear of Wayne Rooney's tally for Manchester United. Since the day he signed in 2017, no one in the Premier League has scored more goals or set up more either. Not Salah in a good patch. Salah across nearly a decade, consistently.
He leaves fourth on the all-time Premier League scoring list at 191 goals, behind Shearer, Kane and Rooney. That will likely stay fixed — he's walking away as a free agent, cutting short his deal rather than negotiating a new one.
What he actually gave Liverpool
The trophy list reads: Champions League (2019), two Premier League titles, the FA Cup, two EFL Cups, the UEFA Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup. Four Premier League Golden Boots — joint record. Three PFA Players' Player of the Year awards, voted for by his peers.
But trophies don't fully capture it. The goals do. The left-footed finish in the snow against Everton that won him the Puskás Award. The long-range curler against Chelsea in 2019 that became a signature. The solo run against Manchester City in 2021 — picking up the ball, waltzing through one of the best defences in the world and finishing like it was a training drill. "Did you see that goal?" wasn't a question Liverpool fans asked occasionally. It was a recurring event.
Klopp paid £34.3 million for him in the summer of 2017. For context, that now looks like a filing error. His first season alone — 32 Premier League goals, the all-time record for a 38-game season — would have justified three times the fee.
How it ends, and what comes next
It doesn't end cleanly. This season has been poor by his standards, and by Liverpool's. Arne Slot's second year has unravelled, and Salah's form has dipped with it. He was dropped to the bench for three consecutive games in six days in December, responded by saying he'd been "thrown under the bus," and while he returned to the starting XI, the atmosphere never fully cleared.
He finishes without a Ballon d'Or — a genuine injustice given the sustained level of his peak years — and without an Africa Cup of Nations winner's medal despite five tournaments with Egypt. He got his country to the 2018 World Cup for the first time in 28 years with a 95th-minute penalty against Congo. He then played through injury in Russia after Sergio Ramos manhandled him in the Champions League final, and Egypt went home in the group stage.
At 33, his next move remains open. Saudi Arabia has been mentioned. So has MLS. A European club isn't out of the question. He'll captain Egypt at the World Cup this summer regardless.
Liverpool, meanwhile, face a rebuild that goes well beyond replacing a winger. For nine years, Salah was the first name on the teamsheet, the player opposition defences built their game plans around, and the man whose contract situation dominated every transfer window. That's gone now. And his 189 league goals for the club won't be matched any time soon — only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt ever scored more for Liverpool, and both played in different eras across far more seasons.
"Liverpool is not just a football club. It's a passion. It's a history. It's a spirit." He said he couldn't explain it in words. He explained it for nine years with his feet instead.
