Image Credits: Imago Images
Mohamed Salah is expected to consider offers from across world football after agreeing to leave Liverpool as a free agent at the end of the season.
His departure comes three months after a bombshell interview in which he criticised Arne Slot and the club. Despite having one year left on his contract, the 33-year-old will leave after both parties “reached an agreement” over his future – less than a year after he signed a new two-year deal.
Salah has enjoyed a glittering spell since joining from AS Roma in 2017, winning two Premier League titles, the Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and FIFA Club World Cup.
He has also claimed four Golden Boots and three PFA Players’ Player of the Year awards. With 255 goals in 435 appearances, he departs as Liverpool’s third-highest goalscorer.
Former defender Jamie Carragher has already reacted, describing Salah’s exit as a significant loss not just for Liverpool, but for English football as a whole.
“Mohamed Salah’s imminent Liverpool departure marks not just the end of an extraordinary era for the club. It means the Premier League will soon be deprived of another world-class, generational talent,” Carragher said in his Telegraph column.
“Liverpool’s loss is English football’s loss. Following Kevin De Bruyne’s exit from Manchester City just last season, Salah’s Anfield farewell brings down the curtain on another career in this country which has illuminated our stadiums.
“Until others step up to fill the huge void, we may risk suffering a ‘superstar famine’. In the pantheon of overseas attacking players to have excelled in England, only Thierry Henry eclipses Salah’s output and consistency.
“While many will argue the merits of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp or Eric Cantona, none of them produced the same devastating numbers as consistently, season-after-season, as the Egyptian.”
The former England defender added: “The timing of Tuesday’s announcement strikes me as both perfect and clever. There will, inevitably, be retrospective suggestions that the decision is a year too late, and that it would have been better for all parties had he sought his farewell when the club won the Premier League trophy last May.
“As a soon-to-be ex-Liverpool player, he will soon come to view the place where he made his name – as I do – as part of his extended family. He will understand my point of view if or when anyone criticises Liverpool in the future.
“And he will also understand that while it is always sad when a great player leaves, no one is irreplaceable. Another Anfield hero always emerges.
“Confirming his intentions now guarantees the kind of emotional, grand farewell that a player of his standing deserves, which is why it was so critically important that neither he nor the club entertained any offers for him in the January window.”
Want to get the latest Liverpool news direct to your phone? Join our WhatsApp community by clicking here.
