Five things you didn’t know about Liverpool’s £34million signing Mohamed Salah

Fri 23 June 2017 18:30, UK

Having signed Dominic Solanke from Chelsea just a matter of weeks ago, another former Blues player has joined Liverpool this summer, in the shape of Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah. Having only made 19 appearances for the London club, Salah spent 18 months on loan at Fiorentina, and a season with Roma, before he joined the latter permanently last season.

After a stellar campaign, the Reds clearly took notice and set about bringing him back to the Premier League. With Salah’s name already known among English football fans, here’s five things you may not have realised about the speedy winger…

He’s the first Egyptian to play for Liverpool

Salah has already made history at Liverpool despite not having step foot on a football field donning their shirt. The winger is the first Egyptian to ever sign for the Reds.

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He was more influential than Juventus’ Paulo Dybala last season

During a season in which Juventus claimed yet another Serie A title, striker Paulo Dybala was a player at the heart of their success. Yet, Salah was having a bigger impact for Roma than the Argentine was having for the eventual Italian top flight champions.

Both men appeared 31 times in the league for their respective sides, with Dybala scoring 11 goals and assisting a further seven. However, Liverpool’s man topped the Juventus star in both departments as he found the back of the net 15 times while assisting his teammates on 11 occasions.

He has scored against Liverpool before

Keep this quiet, but Salah, despite not facing Liverpool regularly, has found the back of the net against his new club. It came in a pre-season game before the start of the previous campaign.

The Reds faced Roma in the ICC pre-season tournament in the United States and Salah managed to turn in a rebound after some fine work down the wing by Alessandro Florenzi. His goal ended up being the winner as the Italian side claimed a 2-1 victory.

He was named Roma’s player of the season despite being a loanee

Before Salah made his move to Roma permanent, he spent a season on loan with them. Knowing he had a chance to impress in Italy, and make Chelsea rue their mistake for not putting faith in him, the Egyptian grasped the opportunity with both hands.

He found the back of the net on 15 occasions – 14 of which came in Serie A – while assisting six times. He impressed so much that he was given the player of the season award, despite not being a permanent member of the squad. Roma went on to shell out £13 million on the new Liverpool star.

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He assisted more league goals than any Liverpool player last season

With 11 assists to his name for the last campaign, it’s clear that Salah is going to provide creativity to Liverpool’s already impressive attacking outlet. Indeed, he was so productive in Serie A last term that he outshone all of his new teammates.

No Liverpool player hit double figures in terms of assists, with Georginio Wijnaldum leading on nine goals created. Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana finished joint second. Meanwhile, in Italy Salah created 71 key chances – a total bettered only by Firmino, who set up 76 opportunities.

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