Salah signs new contract with Liverpool

Mohamed Salah’s trophy-laden spell with Liverpool is set to extend to a decade after the prolific Egypt forward signed a new contract with the Premier League leader, ending months of uncertainty over his future.

The 32-year-old Salah was one of three key senior players — with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk — due to be out of contract at the end of this season.

He is the first to extend his stay, having already established himself as a club great with 243 goals in 394 appearances, placing him third in the list of Liverpool's all-time top scorers.

Liverpool didn’t disclose the length of Salah’s new deal in an announcement on Friday but manager Arne Slot did, saying in a news conference it was a two-year contract.

“Of course I’m very excited," said Salah, who joined from Roma in 2017 for 42 million euros ($50 million). "We have a great team now. Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.

“It’s great, I had my best years here. I played eight years, hopefully it’s going to be 10. Enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I had the best years in my career."

Salah has been either tied or alone as the Premier League's top scorer in three seasons, been voted as the league's player of the year twice, and has lifted seven major trophies including the Premier League in 2020 and the Champions League in 2019.

Helped by Salah's league-leading 27 goals this campaign, Liverpool holds an 11-point lead in the Premier League in its bid for a record-tying 20th English top-flight title.

“I would like to say to (the fans), I am very, very happy to be here," Salah said. "I signed here because I believe we can win a lot of big trophies together. Keep supporting us and we’ll give it our best, and hopefully in the future we’re going to win more trophies.”

Salah's future at Liverpool appeared in the balance for much of this season. He had been linked with a move to the Saudi league — Liverpool rejected an offer worth a reported $188 million in 2023 — and, in an apparent show of brinksmanship, gave a number of interviews stating he was playing his last year at the club because he was no closer to agreeing to a new deal.

Slot, however, said he knew for some time that Salah was likely to stay at Liverpool. And he praised sporting director Richard Hughes and the Fenway Sports Group ownership for securing the forward's future, which meant deviating from the club's policy of not handing players over 30 years of age lucrative new contracts.

British media reported Friday that a cut in Salah's reported wages of 350,000 pounds ($460,000) a week was never on the agenda in discussions.

“Mo Salah is such a great player that as a free agent he can go probably to every club in the world, wherever he wants to,” Slot said. “But he stayed at our club.”

For Slot, Salah's continued presence boosts Liverpool's appeal in the transfer market.

“It gives a positive vibe to the club — maybe a positive vibe we might not need but it’s always good to have positive vibes instead of negative vibes," the Dutch coach added.

“If you want to sign new players or players who want to extend here, it is always a positive to see one of our star players over the last seven or eight years has made the choice to extend his contract. It also shows maybe how ambitious this club is: not only Mo, but the owners."

Attention now turns to whether Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold will follow Salah in committing their future to Liverpool.

Van Dijk, the commanding Netherlands center back who has been at Anfield since 2018, said in comments reported Monday that he was getting closer to signing a new contract.

“There is progress, yeah,” said the Liverpool captain, who turns 34 in July. “Listen, these are internal discussions and we’ll see.”

Alexander-Arnold, however, is the most likely to leave Liverpool having been linked heavily with a move to Real Madrid.

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