Mo Salah's Liverpool Contract: What's Going On?
By Simon Hughes
It is the big question hanging over Liverpool: why are the contract situations of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold still unresolved?
The trio are free agents next summer and can, in theory, talk to interested foreign clubs from January if no new terms are agreed before then.
So why are three of Liverpoolâs most important footballers in this position? And what are the clubâs decision-makers planning to do about it?
Over the next three days, our experts will assess each player, based on conversations with sources familiar with their situations but who asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions.
First up, Salah.
How did we get to this point?
When Salah signed a three-year contract with Liverpool in 2022, he became the highest-paid player in the clubâs history on a basic weekly wage of ÂŁ350,000 ($450,000 at current rates) with performance-related bonuses on top. When you account for the money Salah commands from endorsements, he takes home close to ÂŁ1million a week.
This âconservativeâ estimate was revealed in a Harvard University study from 2023 in conjunction with the player and his representative, Ramy Abbas.
At that time, Salah was generating interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia, a country ploughing billions of pounds into football, mainly through its Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Though one of the PIF-controlled clubs, Al Ittihad, managed to sign Liverpool midfielder Fabinho for ÂŁ40million last summer, it failed with a ÂŁ100m bid, rising to ÂŁ150m, to take Salah shortly before the same transfer window closed.
Salah was happy to remain on Merseyside, where he has scored 56 goals in 96 games since agreeing his latest contract. He now knows what sort of signing-on fee might come his way if he decides to run down his Liverpool deal and move to Saudi.
Though Liverpoolâs new sporting director Richard Hughes has introduced himself to Abbas, there have been no discussions about a renewal.
There has been widespread surprise among fans, and throughout the industry, at Liverpool leaving it this late to talk to Salah â as well as Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold â although the upheaval of last season, when Klopp departed and a new head coach and sporting director arrived, will not have helped.
What are Salahâs considerations?
Since becoming Premier League champions in 2020, Liverpool have won three cup finals, each against Chelsea, yet due to injuries, Salah has played a meaningful role in just one of them.
In the same timeframe, Liverpool have narrowly missed out on reclaiming a domestic championship, as well as the Champions League. Despite a promising start to last season, another title challenge fizzled out.
Salah reflects on this period with some regret, so he is more determined than ever to succeed rather than focus on what comes next. He also knows that a strong season for Liverpool will increase the demand for him.
As much as Liverpool will be assessing Salahâs role in the team under Arne Slot, Salah is intrigued to see how things play out in the post-JĂźrgen Klopp period, and he is not in a rush to commit himself.
Mohamed Salah and Arne Slot get to know each other at Liverpoolâs training ground (Nikki Dyer â LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
He remains open-minded about the future and is more relaxed than in the summer of 2022 when it seemed he and Liverpool would not find a compromise.
That process went on for nearly a year and Abbas described it as the most difficult negotiation of his life. On this occasion, both parties have less time before Salahâs contract runs out.
If it comes down to money, Liverpool are unlikely to be able to compete with a Saudi club. It is widely assumed that one of the Saudi Pro Leagueâs PIF teams will make Salah an offer. Al Ittihadâs interest has not gone away, but getting Salah will cost them.
It did not go unnoticed that the three-year deal put in front of Karim Benzema last summer was among the highest in football history, worth a reported ÂŁ172million a year. The annual figure is roughly the equivalent of what Salah will have earned over the entirety of his current Liverpool contract when you include partnership agreements separate from the club.
Salahâs popularity in the Middle East would make him one of the Saudi Pro Leagueâs trophy signings. Like Benzema, he can expect to cash in.
And what about the club?
In 2022, sporting director Julian Ward was on the Greek island of Mykonos, where Salah was on holiday, to complete the formalities of the playerâs contract. However, most of the significant talks involved the president of owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Mike Gordon, who was in charge of the financial details.
With Hughes now in Wardâs position, and with Gordon stepping aside from day-to-day duties at Liverpool, it will be interesting to see whether Michael Edwards, recently re-hired as FSGâs âchief executive of footballâ, emerges as the decision-maker over money considering how protective of the responsibility Gordon has been over the years.
Agents who have worked with Gordon in the past recall how involved he was and wonder whether he will let the responsibility go.
Yet a combination of figures at Liverpool will decide whether Salah is offered a new contract.
Salahâs age has to be a factor in FSGâs thinking. Liverpoolâs owner prioritises financial sustainability, to the irritation of many fans, and has historically been reluctant to give long contract extensions to players in their thirties. Liverpool normally offer shorter, incentivised deals.
There is also the issue of precedent and the consequences if Salah is offered huge terms at this stage of his career. The outlay would also have an impact on who could be signed as a long-term successor.
Liverpool and Abbas needed to be flexible in 2022 to ensure an agreement was reached. On that occasion, they did not have to consider interest from Saudi clubs, whose deep pockets would weaken Liverpoolâs hand this time.
Salah will turn 33 a few weeks before the expiry of this deal next June. Though Abbas told Harvard he thinks his client can play at the highest level until he is 40, Liverpoolâs data team will analyse whether he is slowing up. His display at Ipswich on Saturday prompted Slot to say he believes âthere are many more years inside of him to playâ.
How crucial is it for Liverpool to keep Salah?
If Liverpool decide that a new contract for Salah does not make economic sense, it will be a harder argument with the clubâs supporters.
If he does leave, reactions will differ depending on the destination. Many fans will accept the challenges of competing financially with a team in Saudi Arabia but there would be less understanding if he stayed in Europe, especially if he ended up joining another Premier League club off the back of a productive season.
Salah will not want to jeopardise his legacy at Liverpool by moving to one of the clubâs historical or competitive rivals, ruling out Manchester United and Manchester City. It might be different if an offer came from London, however, a city he enjoys visiting.
From Liverpoolâs perspective, replacing Salahâs yield would not be easy. Even last season, which was a bad one by Salahâs standards, he scored at least 25 goals for the fourth campaign in a row. Some of the most significant data fell in line with each of his previous years at the club. His finishing let him down, which meant he underperformed his expected goals (xG) total for the first time in his Liverpool career.
Usually, a sign of any decline is when a player does not put himself in an area to try to shoot. Tactics have a role in this assessment. Under Klopp, Salah was often found in a much wider position during the 2023-24 season compared to his first in 2017-18 when he scored 44 times.
Despite this, Salah finished behind only Erling Haaland for xG involvements. Having suffered a tear to his hamstring on international duty with Egypt, a fitter, more confident Salah this season may be more potent than ever.
As Liverpool have found out with Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, allowing great players to leave is easier than finding them again.
What outcome is most likely?
A Saudi Arabian club, as Al Ittihad has shown more interest more recently than any other party.
For Salah, however, there is much to think about. He loves England, where he can live quietly with his family without the kind of scrutiny that exists in Egypt. Would he be giving that up if he went to Saudi Arabia, a ferry ride across the Red Sea from his home country?
Saudi Pro League clubs have not been as aggressive in their recruitment strategy this summer, so Salahâs arrival next year would ramp up the conversation about the divisionâs power and influence again â increasing the focus on him.
If it leaves him with half a billion pounds in the bank, the risk of losing some of his privacy might be considered worth it.
There is also the geopolitical context. Salah has fought ferociously since becoming a global brand to remain independent of any religion, nation, or government. He wants to be judged as a footballer, rather than where he is from or his faith â though these factors influence who he is.
Given how crucial football is to Saudi Arabiaâs âVision 2030 strategyâ, moving there would jeopardise his sense of âothernessâ and become an extension of the stateâs machinery.
While it is thought in Europe that the most famous Arabic footballer on the planet would jump at the chance of returning âhomeâ, Saudi Arabia isnât Salahâs home. It is a regional rival, a country many Egyptians believe is attempting to supplant it as the cultural centre of the Islamic world. Moving there would not necessarily make him more popular.
Salah may also have reservations about the standard of football in the Saudi Pro League, especially if he continues to perform well. The infrastructure in Saudi Arabia is still catching up and Benzema has been frustrated.
Salah may just as likely find an offer appealing from the United States. Currently, much of his branding is West-facing. Lionel Messi is there and the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the U.S., is coming, and Egypt are confident of qualifying.
While he would not earn the kind of money on offer in Saudi Arabia, a move to Major League Soccer would allow him to play in a division further along in its development, while experiencing a lifestyle relatively similar to England.
