MEDIA: Salah “Allowed LFC to Dream Again”

The timing of Mohamed Salah‘s official announcement that this will be his last season caught many by surprise, but that did not stop an outpouring of tributes and reaction from the media.

The media cycle can be unrelenting, but one thing it does exceptionally well is react with consideration when news such as Salah’s exit was made official.

A player of profound ability, Salah has carved a legacy at Liverpool and in English football which can never be erased, and the media were quick to acknowledge his contribution at Anfield and beyond.

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The Guardian‘s Jonathan Wilson comended Salah’s personal achievements and his undisputed place in the “pantheon of great Liverpool forwards”:

“His 255 goals for the club place him third in the all-time list, behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt. Scoring in 10 games in a row is a club record.

“Nobody else has scored 20 or more in a campaign for Liverpool eight seasons in a row. But the stats are only corroboration. What will live on are individual memories.

“His most important goal was probably the penalty that set Liverpool on their way to victory in the 2019 Champions League final, but his greatest goal, amid a lot of competition, was probably his solo run in the 2-2 draw at home against Manchester City in October 2021.

“There can be debate about exactly where in the pantheon of great Liverpool forwards Salah stands, but that he is in the pantheon, and pretty near the top, is beyond dispute.

“Soon, the anticlimactic final season will be forgotten, and he will be remembered as the club legend he is, wriggling in from the right, setting the ball on to his left and arcing it at pace into the corner – just as he did last Wednesday.”

Aadam Patel, of the BBC, turned back the clock to reflect on the Egyptian’s first words as a Liverpool player and how he has lived up to them (and more):

“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.”

Oliver Kay, of the Athletic, delivered a rather poignant sentiment that Salah was the “right player at the right club at the right time”:

“In a sport where so much business seems transactional these days, it has been one of those rare relationships that feels perfect: the right player at the right club at the right time.

“Whatever the circumstances of those final weeks as a Liverpool player might be, Salah’s legacy will resonate for many years to come. There is a danger in recency bias when it comes to these evaluations, but there is no risk in suggesting he will go down as one of the club’s — and the Premier League’s — all-time greats.

“The right player, in the right place, at the right time. Time after time after time.”

Salah’s impact extended beyond just the football pitch, as ESPN‘s Beth Lindop made sure to recognise:

“All good things must come to an end. Even Mohamed Salah — the epitome of a good thing for Liverpool over the past eight-and-a-half years — cannot go on forever.”

[…]

“His brilliance is so great that it now seems he cannot step onto the pitch without sending another record tumbling. And yet his impact is such that it cannot and should not simply be distilled into matches played and trophies won.

“Over the past nine years, Salah has become a cultural phenomenon. To a generation, he is Liverpool Football Club, with his importance extending far beyond the realms of the sport itself. In 2019, the Egypt international was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, having been named among the most 100 influential people in the world.

“From a football perspective, Salah’s impending exit leaves Liverpool with a huge void to fill. The Egyptian has failed to live up to his own impossibly high standards this term — his current tally of 10 goals in 34 games puts him on course for his least productive season in a red shirt — and yet it is still almost impossible to imagine Liverpool without him.”

The Times‘ Paul Joyce, meanwhile, shone the spotlight on a player who made the “impossible possible” and allowed Liverpool “to dream again”:

“He went on to make the seemingly impossible possible in a Liverpool shirt. Take a moment to think of some of the goals he has scored.

“The mazy dribbles — games against Watford, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur come to mind — when he bamboozled a posse of starstruck defenders, the ball seemingly glued to his foot, all done with an inevitability as to what would follow.

“Salah allowed Liverpool to dream again, then win again. And that will be the “Egyptian King’s” legacy.”

[…]

“Salah will be scoring goals somewhere else, but the standards he set will remain enshrined at Liverpool. Second choice? Since the moment he joined, he has been second to none.”

Finally, Jamie Carragher, might have had a thing or two to say about Salah’s public statements, but his admiration of the 33-year-old, as penned in the Telegraph, is without question:

“In the pantheon of overseas attacking players to have excelled in England, only Thierry Henry eclipses Salah’s output and consistency.

“While many will argue the merits of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp or Eric Cantona, none of them produced the same devastating numbers as consistently, season-after-season, as the Egyptian.

“Across nine seasons at the highest level, Salah has made 435 appearances – an average of just over 48 games every single year for his club. These are extraordinary numbers given the relentless physical and mental intensity with which he and his team have played for most of that time.”

With two months left in the season, Salah deserves an extended farewell in tribute to all that he gave us – and hopefully, there is still more to come before the curtain falls.