Written by Zack Oaten | @Zackoaten1
After Mohamed Salah’s Merseyside future was clouded in secrecy, the Egyptian has finally signed a three-year deal which makes him Liverpool’s highest paid player ever.
However, this contract means far more than money, more than what he could spend his well-deserved pay rise on and certainly more than any sort of wage structure. Salah’s commitment to Liverpool is a message to Liverpool’s youth, a message of hope and solitude which will ring in the ears of anyone dreaming of a red future.
Until Sadio Mane was unveiled by Bayern Munich, wearing their iconic red and white strip, there was still a belief that Liverpool could keep two of the famous trio that have led so many successful campaigns together. Those pictures of Mane smiling in his new colours felt like the first domino to fall in what seemed like the start of a crisis at a club which felt so fundamentally secure just a year before. That was until Salah signed that contract.
News such as this can lift an entire club and inspire a new generation of talent to look up to a father figure like Salah who is bursting with 5 years of experience and 156 goals in just 254 appearances since signing from A.S. Roma. The Egyptian brings security to a squad that is being injected with a selection of young attacking talents who will be looking for a leader to guide them early on in their careers. To inspire them to become something more than a Liverpool player, to be remembered indefinitely by supporters of all clubs around the world.
Our Egyptian King is here to stay ????#SalahStays pic.twitter.com/4oQGiN6krc
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 1, 2022
Liverpool’s Iberian trio of troublemakers who have recently signed for the club, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Fabio Carvalho are all young, fresh and are being moulded by the likes of Jurgen Klopp and major influencers such as Salah. In other areas of the pitch, players who are likely to supply Mo in his final years at the club, Calvin Ramsay, Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones and even Trent Alexander-Arnold need a figure such as Salah to base their own game on, and who else better to base it on than Mo?
In modern football being 30 years old does not necessarily mean the end of your career, just look at the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi or even former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez who are all 35 or older and are still playing at the highest level.
In the majority of cases players age better than fine wine, instead of sitting in a dusty cellar they act as an example of a player who they should aspire to be. Salah is the bar which adept adolescents must try and raise, and with his presence there is no reason why they can’t do that.
If he had left, the whole club would have felt deflated. Salah has been the beating heart of every trophy, every iconic moment, and every successful campaign the Reds have had in recent times. Losing him would have been like losing a limb, he is the soul of the club and without his name on the team sheet there is no life or drive in any part of the squad. If you are looking for motivation or confidence than you look to him, especially as a young player.
Salah has won every major trophy possible with Liverpool after adding two more last season. Young talents and recent signings who will be hoping break into the first team won’t find a better role model than Salah, on and off the pitch. Fitness wise he is a machine; he is always in the most incredible shape, and he works extremely hard to gets his rewards. Off the pitch he is a charitable man who contributes to education, healthcare and animal rights projects and consistently stays out of trouble unlike most top footballers.
A ”father figure” is a perfect description of the Egyptian as he grows older, 30 years old may not be ancient but it is certainly a long way off from the likes of Carvalho (19) in footballing years. Most won’t only look up to him for inspiration and leadership, they will worship him and follow his methods in years to come, like the Egyptian king he is.
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— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 1, 2022
