Mohamed Salah has changed the fortune of Liverpool since he arrived in England from AS Roma in 2017. He has led the team to a Champions League trophy and a Club World Cup as the Reds are now on the verge of winning the Premier League Trophy for the first time in 30 years. However, now it has come to surface that all these could have eluded the Merseyside club if the Egyptian had parted with Liverpool in 2018.
OnTime Sports (as cited by Marca) now reports that Salah mentioned to Hany Ramzy, former assistant coach of Egypt national team, that Real Madrid came calling for him in 2018. The report also said that the forward chose to stay with Liverpool and continue his adventure with Klopp.
He said “When I was working with Hector Cuper, we had a training session in Switzerland in March 2018. I was talking to Salah and he told me that Real Madrid had sent him an offer.
“The offer was really good, but Salah discussed it with me and with Mr. Cuper and decided to stay with Liverpool because he was comfortable there,”
What prompted Madrid to make the move?
Cristiano Ronaldo bid farewell to Los Blancos in 2018 after nine fruitful years with the club. It was quite natural for the Spanish side to delve into the transfer market in search of a replacement. After his stupendous season with Liverpool, Salah was an obvious choice. In the 2017-18 season, the Egyptian king scored 32 league goals for Liverpool, earning him the Golden Boot and the Premier League Player of the Season award. He took the world by storm, surpassing all expectation after his move from the Italian side. It was especially breathtaking for Salah to perform at the level he did considering his unproductive time with Chelsea. It attracted the interest of some of the best clubs of Europe, and Real Madrid were no exception.
The current state of affairs at Madrid
Till today Zinedine Zidane is looking for a permanent solution to Madrid’s attacking woes. The ideal replacement of Ronaldo is yet to arrive. Luka Jović, whom Real purchased last summer, has failed to live up to expectations. Karim Benzema, on the other hand, is already 32 and evidently at the final phase of his career. Therefore, the Spanish giants need reinforcements at the front, and hence they have been linked with the likes of Mbappé.
Having Salah in the squad could have solved this problem for Real Madrid and right now the board could have looked at other position to strengthen. Lastly, what is Real’s loss is Liverpool’s gain, and this theory could once again be proved right this summer when the Reds lift the Premier League.
