In the summer of 2017, Egyptian international Mohamed Salah sought a new home at Liverpool from Roma, scoring a number of goals as part of the front three. He is also the ace in his current team under manager Arne Slott, with 10 goals and 10 assists in 17 games.
The 32-year-old right winger, who has scored more than 200 goals for Anfield and is a legend as the Egyptian King despite his current status, has also played in the Premier League for Watford and other clubs, and 36-year-old forward Troy Deeney, who is currently unattached, made a shocking statement.
“I think Mohamed Salah is excellent, he’s a pivotal part for Liverpool and they should never have let it [his expiring contract] get to this situation.”
“But I understand that there’s a financial structure around what they want to try and keep to.”
“My argument has always been that I just don’t think he’s world class.”
“But world class is just a different opinion, what I think of world class is would I want my kids to play like that player? That’s what I think is world class.”
“If I was asking my kids who want to be forwards, I would be saying I would like them to look at what Vinicius Jr does as opposed to Mohamed Salah.”
“But his goals that he [Salah] scores, he scores an unbelievable amount of goals, he’s highly effective, but that’s just my opinion.”
“He’s probably going to turn around and say, ‘Who the f*** is Troy?,’ and fair play to him, but that’s my opinion.”
talkSPORT
The Premier League, where investment money is poured in from all over the world and star players from all over the world gather, the level of competition for the championship is outstanding and it is extremely difficult to qualify for the Champions League.
It is shallow to say that a player who has been playing so well on a consistent basis in a top-level league is not world class simply because he does not play prominently.
We invest a lot of money every year and our only rivals in the domestic league are Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
It would be better to redefine the definition of world class to say that a player is world class if he is in an environment where it is easy to concentrate on the Champions League, doesn’t play defence for the team and can’t celebrate a winner because he didn’t win the Ballon d’Or.