A number of players from Liverpool’s golden era, including Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Sadio Mane, and Georginio Wijnaldum, sought new homes in the Saudi Professional League when they received interest from Saudi Arabia.
The trend spread to existing Liverpool players as well. While several players, including Thiago Alcantara, Alisson Becker, and Joe Gomez, were reportedly on the Middle Eastern club’s shortlist, Egyptian international Mohamed Salah was the hottest target, and new stories hit the media on a daily basis.
Liverpool maintained a “no sale” stance throughout, and stated that Egyptian King would stay, while the Saudis tried to persuade them with a huge offer. However, the situation remained parallel, and the European transfer market came to an end. The heat of the transfer frenzy surrounding the player began to diminish, as there was no way to transfer the main player from this point on.
According to Fabrizio Romano, an Italian journalist, it is hard to imagine the Egyptian striker leaving Anfield this summer, and the situation seems to have calmed down. However, he reported that Saudi Arabia will try to acquire him in the future.
“The situation is calm on Mohamed Salah. He scored for Liverpool in the win over Aston Villa after the news that the Reds rejected a very big offer from Al Ittihad, though some sources close to the Saudi Pro League believe that they will return for Salah.”
“However, now it is almost impossible to imagine Liverpool selling Salah, so it would probably be in 2024. They accept that Liverpool won’t sell the player now, but they will be back in the future.”
“Still, we have to respect what Liverpool did because they turned down more than £100m for Salah when many people in the media were expecting this deal could go through, with some arguing that maybe they had to let a player of his age go for that kind of money. But it shows Liverpool’s stance both in public and in private, they always said he was untouchable.”
“Liverpool will surely have no regrets – they are very happy with Salah, who continues to perform and to score goals, as always. Liverpool have been very strong and very clear on this, and their reward is to keep a top player who remains a key part of the project.”
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The former Roma forward, who is under contract until 2025, has been a regular on the right wing this season, scoring two goals and assisting two others after four games.
He has played more than 300 games for Liverpool, scoring more than 180 goals.
Salah has become a legend, but now that he is 31 years old, Liverpool is in serious need of a successor. If Saudi is willing to prepare a similarly large sum of money next summer, it would be one way to use the money to acquire a couple of promising youngsters.