"You never know what can happen tomorrow, but it is a possibility." Mohamed Salah said that back in 2016, responding to a fan asking whether he'd ever become a coach. Eight years, 250-plus Liverpool goals, two league titles, and a Champions League later, that question is creeping back into relevance.
Salah confirmed last week he will leave Anfield at the end of this season. Nine years. Done. The farewell video he released was sincere and measured — "this club will always be my home" — but the destination is open. Saudi Pro League and MLS are the names being thrown around. A return to Egyptian football hasn't been ruled out either.
What Salah actually built at Liverpool
He arrived from Roma in 2017 after a difficult Chelsea stint that saw him loaned out to Fiorentina and then Roma to find his footing. What he did in England made all of that look like prologue. He became the most consistent attacking player in the Premier League over a near-decade stretch — the kind of player whose absence visibly shifts a title race.
Liverpool's attacking depth next season becomes a real question once he's gone. The Reds have won two league titles with Salah as a central figure. Whoever replaces him will be doing so under an unfair comparison from day one, and that pressure tends to inflate transfer fees and complicate negotiations. Any team priced as a title contender next August will need to be assessed with a heavy asterisk until that void is addressed.
The coaching possibility
The 2016 Q&A happened during his Roma loan — a period when Salah was still figuring out his career trajectory, not yet the finished product. That he even entertained the coaching question then says something about how he thinks about the game. Whether it ever materialises is another matter entirely.
For now, he's still a player with options. The last line of his exit video was borrowed from the club itself: "I will never walk alone." Liverpool will feel his absence more than that line suggests.
