'It wasn't meant to end like this' - Salah exit tough but inevitable

By Aadam Patel (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/topics/c9wx1wnyxp5t)

Liverpool reporter

And so the long goodbye begins for the 'Egyptian King' - undoubtedly, one of the greatest footballers the Premier League has ever seen.

Mohamed Salah has worn the Liverpool shirt 435 times across all competitions. At most, he will get the opportunity up to 15 more times between now and the end of the season.

Yet, regardless of whether Liverpool win silverware this season - with Arne Slot's side still in with a chance of the Champions League and FA Cup - the 33-year-old will leave having won six major trophies with Liverpool since joining from AS Roma in 2017.

The individual accolades are worth noting too, from a record four Premier League Golden Boots to winning the PFA Players' Player of the Year on three occasions. Since he signed for Liverpool, no-one has more Premier League goals (189) or assists (92).

When his Liverpool team-mate Milos Kerkez recently posted a picture of Salah's trophy cabinet on Instagram, the running joke on social media was Salah collects player of the match awards like you would get them out of a vending machine.

The sight of Salah scoring - then kneeling down and bowing his head to the floor in an act of prostration that Muslims call Sujood - will never be forgotten.

For Liverpool alone he has scored 255 times, with only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt scoring more times for the club in its illustrious history.

But it wasn't meant to end like this - with Salah essentially agreeing to cut short his contract and Liverpool letting him leave on a free this summer.

Less than a year ago, Salah was sitting on a throne inside Anfield after renewing his contract and signing a deal until the summer of 2027.

His previous deal was set to expire in the 2025 but, given his numbers last season, where he topped the goalscoring and assist charts in the Premier League, the Liverpool hierarchy had no choice but to offer him a new deal.

Yet by December, Salah was benched - then left out of the squad entirely - after his explosive mixed zone interview at Leeds, where he claimed that his relationship with Slot had broken down and that someone at the club wanted him out.

Those close to Salah say he was always going to speak at Elland Road, regardless of the result, and that his initial discontent had started when he was benched for a Champions League game away at Eintracht Frankfurt in October, a match Liverpool won 5-1.

Slot admitted it was a difficult decision but it didn't sit right with Salah, who believed he should be starting every Premier League and Champions League game, given what he had done for the club.

Put simply, that was the first seed that Salah would no longer be a guaranteed starter and, given Liverpool's summer outlay of £450m including Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, the direction of their attacking strategy was clear. Salah knew he would no longer be the main man.

In the weeks leading up to that explosive interview, he was left upset after meetings with the Liverpool hierarchy, including sporting director Richard Hughes, where it was outlined that he could be benched.

His punishment for the interview was being left behind for the trip to Inter Milan but, three days later, Salah came off the bench against Brighton and got an assist - with Slot saying post-match there was "no issue to resolve".

From there, the Egyptian travelled to the Africa Cup of Nations while the club held talks with his agent Ramy Abbas and, when Salah returned to England in January, those close to the situation felt a verbal agreement was in place for both player and club to part ways this summer.

Last month, BBC Sport reported that a summer departure was increasingly likely.

The news comes as no surprise, given the way events have unfolded this season, but the timing is interesting - with Salah saying on his social channels that this is the "first part of my farewell".

He asked the club to make the announcement as early as possible, out of respect for the supporters and the fact he gets to go on his own terms is the least Salah deserves.

His agent Ramy Abbas said: "We do not know where Mohamed will play next season. This also means that no-one else knows."

At the very least, Salah will want to leave on a memorable note and the decision to part ways will have been immensely tough - even if it was somewhat inevitable -given he and his family, including his wife and two daughters, are settled in the north west and admire the British way of life.

"I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, these people would become part of my life," Salah said on Tuesday.

But there is little doubt that despite the circumstances of his exit, he will get the fondest of departures - with the Anfield faithful getting to serenade their main man on at least a few more occasions.

A scroll through the comments on his social media post confirming his departure is enough to highlight how highly he is rated and respected, among his peers and his supporters. Between now and his departure, more tributes will certainly follow.

He will go down categorically as one of the finest footballers to wear the Liverpool shirt.

Go back to June 2017 and Salah's first interview with the club as a 25-year-old.

"I will give 100% and give everything for the club. I am happy to be here and I really want to win something for this club," he said.

Mohamed Salah has done that and so much more.

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