Recently, Mohamed Salah accomplished something that even Lionel Messi was unable to do, earning him a new contract with Liverpool.

Recently, Mohamed Salah accomplished something that even Lionel Messi was unable to do, earning him a new contract with Liverpool.

Together with Kylian Mbappé, Mohamed Salah is a member of an elite four-player club.
Despite interest from Saudi Arabia, Liverpool must make every effort to keep him past 2024.

Five Liverpool players were finalists for the Ballon D’Or in 2022.
If you include Sadio Mané, who made his case by scoring 23 goals for the Reds and leading Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations victory before moving to Bayern Munich in the summer, that number rises to six.

Karim Benzema of Real Madrid won the award in the end, but Mané finished second behind him and was joined in the top five by Mohamed Salah.
Had the Champions League final ended differently, Mané might have won the prize.
Luis Dáz, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, and Virgil van Dijk, who finished between 14th and 22nd, were also named to the shortlist.

Salah, however, is the only representative of Liverpool on the 30-man list one year later.
Given that the Reds unexpectedly dropped to fifth place in the Premier League standings and only made it as far as the round of 16 of the Champions League before losing badly to Real Madrid on aggregate by a score of 6-2, this isn’t entirely surprising.

Salah is always there, so in a way it feels appropriate. Many elite athletes have put up comparable numbers, but very, very few have done so with the same level of reliability that the Egyptian has demonstrated since he moved to Anfield in 2017.
His uniqueness comes primarily from that.

Along with Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappé of Paris Saint-Germain, and Kevin de Bruyne of Manchester City, Salah is one of only four players to have been nominated for each of the past five Ballon D’Or awards (the prize wasn’t given out in 2020 due to the pandemic).

Even Lionel Messi, arguably the best player to ever play the game of football, isn’t on that list, as you’ll notice.

Despite looking to be the favorite this year after leading Argentina to the World Cup ahead of the record-breaking Erling Haaland, Messi was actually left off the shortlist last year after scoring just six league goals in a lackluster season for PSG.

As a result of his forced departure from Manchester United and move to the Saudi Arabian team Al-Nassr last year, Cristiano Ronaldo’s nomination streak, which dates all the way back to 2003, has also been broken.

Salah’s accomplishments are still impressive at the age of 31, despite the fact that Messi and Ronaldo are much further along in their careers.

Even though Liverpool’s fortunes have changed over the past five years, he has consistently performed at a world-class level, with an impressive lowest goal total in a single season of 23. He scored 31 goals during the Reds’ injury-ravaged season of 2020–21, and he added another 30 goals the following year as many of the team’s other stars—some of whom are mentioned above—experienced sharp declines in performance.

Salah still doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
Since his own 15-game streak between August and December of 2021, he has either scored or assisted in 10 straight Premier League games, the longest such streak in the league.
While doing so, he is developing a more compelling case for a new deal at Liverpool in the face of fierce Saudi interest.

Saudi Pro League officials believe Salah will move to the Gulf country “when, not if,” despite Al-Ittihad’s unsuccessful $187 million (£150 million/€175 million) bid this summer.

Liverpool shouldn’t accept the loss of Salah for the following season and just watch as he goes on a farewell tour this year.
The Pro League, which would otherwise view the winger as ripe for the taking given that his current contract expires in 2025, should be rebuffed by trying to tie him down to a new deal.

Given his athletic prowess and footballing genius, Salah appears to have a few more years of superstardom in him, so Liverpool needs to do everything in its power to convince him to stay.