Mohamed Salah will bid an emotional farewell to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, bringing down the curtain on a glorious nine-year spell that redefined the club’s modern era. With head coach Arne Slot refusing to confirm his involvement against Brentford, the Egyptian’s departure on a free transfer—after the club agreed to an early contract termination—marks the abrupt end of a reign that delivered 257 goals, 119 assists, and a treasure trove of major honours.
Signed from Roma in 2017 for £34m, Salah arrived with lingering doubts from a previous Premier League spell at Chelsea. On his debut at Watford, trailing 2-1 at half-time, then-manager Jürgen Klopp quipped “Welcome to the Premier League.” Salah’s second-half strike, alongside goals from Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino, salvaged a 3-3 draw and offered an early glimpse of what was to come. That front three would evolve into one of the most feared attacking units in world football, winning the Champions League, Premier League, and Fifa Club World Cup while earning praise from Pep Guardiola: “They scare me, they’re dangerous.”
Yet the chemistry between Salah and Mané was never cosy. Firmino later revealed he acted as “firefighter” when tensions flared, but that intense rivalry pushed both to incredible heights. Klopp, reflecting in March, told BBC Sport that Salah “set completely new standards for a professional football player—how hard you can work, how much you can invest in recovery.” Those standards cascaded through the squad, with captain Virgil van Dijk conceding he will “100% miss” Salah’s leadership by example.
The numbers alone are staggering. Salah’s 257 Liverpool goals place him third on the club’s all-time list behind Ian Rush (346) and Roger Hunt (285). He registered 119 assists, averaging a goal or an assist every 94 minutes—a remarkable 376 goal involvements in 35,326 minutes. Only Rush and Hunt have scored more for Liverpool; no overseas player in Premier League history has scored more than Salah’s 193 top-flight goals. Rush himself, asked by BBC Sport, admired how Salah “took it to a different level” and even showed a “Scouse sense of humour” by quizzing him about counting training goals.
Salah’s obsession with marginal details became the stuff of legend. After a 5-0 win over Watford, he asked goalkeeper Ben Foster which way he would have dived for a penalty—a tiny moment that encapsulated his relentless drive. That mentality, combined with a shift toward more positive body language after advice from Andrew Robertson, transformed him into a figure whose impact went far beyond statistics. “Mo is not a big talker, but he’s a leader by example,” van Dijk told the BBC.
But the campaign took a bitter turn. Salah’s outburst at Leeds in December, when he was benched for a third successive game, exposed deep fissures with Slot. He had started 53 consecutive Premier League matches before that spell, and the benching signalled the beginning of the end. Sources indicate Slot and Liverpool’s hierarchy were content for Salah to terminate his contract a year early, freeing him to leave this summer without a fee. This difficult season—Slot’s first and arguably the club’s toughest—also saw the squad rocked by the death of teammate Diogo Jota in July, a tragedy that Salah said made him “frightened” to return to Liverpool after the break.
Sunday’s encounter with Brentford will be an afternoon of conflicting emotions. For a player who once sat on a throne inside Anfield to celebrate a contract extension, the departure is an abdication a year ahead of schedule. The Egyptian king, who rose from the village of Nagrig to become one of the most recognisable athletes on the planet, leaves an indelible mark on both the club and the Arab world.
His immediate future is unclear—which club or even which country he will represent next season remains unknown. What is certain is that his legacy at Liverpool is secure. The goals, the trophies, the sheer joy he provided through moments of magic on the pitch will be treasured long after Sunday’s final whistle. As one club employee noted, Salah was “a footballer to the absolute core of his being,” a player whose end product—goals and assists—became the currency of his greatness.
In an era where consistency is the hardest attribute to sustain, Salah delivered elite production year after year. His 58 goal involvements in his debut season and 57 in what many considered a comeback campaign last season demonstrate a longevity matched by few. Those close to him speak of a man who is fun to be around yet fiercely aware of outside opinions—the kind who “keeps the receipts.” For Liverpool fans, the receipts are a collection of unforgettable moments: the record-breaking goals, the lung-busting runs, the nerveless penalties.
Slot’s refusal to guarantee Salah a starting spot against Brentford only adds to the sense of an era ending not with a heroic sunset but a quiet clocking out. Yet the absence of a grand send-off cannot diminish what has come before. As Rush put it, “It’s not just goals; you look at the number of assists and he’s a complete footballer.” That completeness—allied to an iron will—set the template for a generation.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.
