With little progress in talks over a new contract for Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian is said to be facing a “straight choice” between Liverpool and Saudi Arabia.
By now, fans hoped Salah would have agreed new terms and committed his future to Liverpool beyond the end of this remarkable campaign.
But with only five months now left on his deal – and realistically only four months in which he will be playing, with the Champions League final taking place on May 31 – the situation is growing tense.
Liverpool remain in talks with the representatives of Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold but it would be no surprise if the mood music began to turn.
The Athletic‘s James Pearce has provided the latest stance on Salah’s future, following overtures from the Saudi Pro League earlier in the week.
“Liverpool want to keep him beyond his 33rd birthday in June but the financial package has to make sense for the club’s long-term interests,” he writes.
“Increasingly, it seems Salah will be faced with a straight choice between signing a new deal at Anfield or heading for a club in the Saudi Pro League.”
Al-Hilal are known suitors and “would love to have him on board before the Club World Cup,” though interestingly that kicks off before his contract officially expires on July 1.
“If it comes down to money then the most likely outcome is that a new chapter in Saudi Arabia beckons,” Pearce adds, which should come as no surprise.
However, while the finances of the deal are undoubtedly important, there is certainly a question of the project in Saudi Arabia matching Salah’s ambitions.
In Pearce’s words, while Liverpool “will not be able to compete with the wages on offer there,” the player himself “must surely be looking at the bigger picture and his Premier League legacy.”
Two goals in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Bournemouth saw Salah overtake Frank Lampard to become the outright sixth-top goalscorer of all time in the Premier League.
He requires seven more to pass Sergio Aguero into the top five and 10 to eclipse Andy Cole’s record and move into fourth.
Set his targets any higher and Salah would almost certainly need to stay beyond the current campaign.
While Salah’s discourse has changed this season with more emphasis on the collective – insisting after Saturday’s game that his “main target” is winning the title with Liverpool – he is known to covet individual records.
There would be no meaningful records on offer in Saudi Arabia, regardless of Cristiano Ronaldo’s desperate attempts to prove his relevancy in targeting 1,000 career goals.
