Paul Gorst, the Liverpool ECHO’s Liverpool FC correspondent, writes after Mohamed Salah announced he is to leave Liverpool at the end of the season after nine years of decorated service
Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian King, pictured after signing his new Liverpool contract in April 2025. Eleven months later, he has confirmed he will leave the club halfway through it(Image: Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It was fitting, as Mohamed Salah sat down to record the video that confirmed his Liverpool departure after nine years, that it was done so in front of his glittering array of trophies.
Most of the gleaming baubles, golden boots and winners medals that shimmered behind him, as he told the world of his end-of-season plans, were earned as a Liverpool player.
Those symbols of success were confirmation enough of how good Salah has been for most of this past decade, but cold, hard silverware only tells half the story for supporters who have loved him like few others.
For the past nine seasons fans have sung loud and proud about their Egyptian King, running down the wing and with the return of domestic action coming in early April, opportunities to continue doing just that will now be fleeting for Liverpool’s fanbase.
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After all, they are getting used to the long goodbye at Anfield. Jurgen Klopp’s revelation of his future two years ago gave the worldwide fanbase around five months to process the news before working out the most fitting way to send the legendary German off into the sunset.
Salah’s March confirmation affords them less time to do likewise, but it was instructive that Liverpool’s own slant on the news spoke about the need to withhold the real plaudits until later this year.
“With plenty still to play for this season, Salah is firmly focused on trying to achieve the best possible finish to the campaign for Liverpool,” read the official post on social media. “And therefore the time to fully celebrate his legacy and achievements will follow later in the year when he bids farewell to Anfield.”
It speaks to Salah’s almost unquenchable thirst for improvement that he signed off on a message that aims to keep the powder dry for supporters for now.
With two massive quarter-final ties to come against Manchester City in the FA Cup and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League after the break, the 33-year-old is clearly aware of how his news has the potential to cause distraction, particularly when there is a dogfight for a top-five place also on the agenda.
How much that message will be listened to in the coming weeks remains to be seen but the idea from Salah and Liverpool is at least plain: the time to shower their hero with praise and platitudes will come. Not now.
But if that was clearly communicated across the social platforms on Tuesday evening, the perhaps deliberately ambiguous phrasing over the nature of his exit is curious.
Liverpool say they have “reached an agreement” with Salah for him to leave at the end of the season and given he has a year left on the biggest contract ever penned at Anfield, 11 months ago, it has been inferred that the third highest goalscorer in the history of the club will walk away as a free agent.
How else would Salah be so confident to declare his end-of-season exit in such a public manner had there been room for transfer negotiations between Liverpool and interested parties to fall apart later down the line?
Liverpool, perhaps due to the unrivalled service Salah has given, are more likely to have struck a gentleman’s agreement that will see him depart for nothing while taking a huge strain off the biggest wage bill in the Premier League.
The player’s agent, the outspoken Colombian solicitor, Ramy Abbas, confirmed that there is no deal lined up with another club as things stand, only furthering the idea the No.11 will see the final year of his deal ripped up.
Despite Abbas’ assertion, the smart money has always been on Salah eventually leaving to power the next phase of the Saudi Pro League’s evolution.
An offer of £150m from Al-Ittihad was flatly rejected in 2023 but despite the immense wealth of the Middle East’s biggest clubs, Salah is more likely to become Saudi Arabia’s new poster boy as one of the most high-profile free agents in football history, rather than leave now for any significant fee.
In a region informally known to some as the People’s Republic of Merseyside, many Liverpudlians have a complicated relationship with the monarchy. The Egyptian King, however, was good enough for them to make an exception.
