Mohamed Salah has been synonymous with Liverpool’s rise to become the best club side in world football.
In less than three seasons, he has scored an astonishing 89 goals in 139 games and won the Premier League golden boot twice.
Salah’s journey at the Merseyside club started in 2017 on his debut at Watford and he returns to Vicarage Road on Saturday – with full commentary of the match LIVE on talkSPORT at 5.30pm – as one of the most revered forwards in the game.
Here at talkSPORT.com, we chart the great success the Egypt international has enjoyed on his way to becoming a Liverpool icon.
The forward arrived from Roma in June 2017 for a then club-record transfer fee of £36.9million.
A few eyebrows were raised, mainly by pundits and rival fans, with many writing him off because of his time with Chelsea.
Admittedly he made little impact at Stamford Bridge and was loaned to Fiorentina and then Roma, before making the latter move permanent.
Plenty of players have failed to nail down a starting spot at Chelsea but still gone on to become one of the world’s best players – just ask Kevin De Bruyne.
Salah came to Liverpool from Roma having scored 15 and 19 goals in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons respectively.
There was an expectation he would score goals but no-one would have expected him to make quite the impact he has, particularly in that first season.
But Jurgen Klopp was adamant he’d got a good player on his hands, although Salah wasn’t actually his pick.
“I have followed him since he emerged at Basel and he has matured into a really good player,” the German said.
“His pace is incredible, he gives us more attacking threat and we are already strong in this area. I like that we will make it even more competitive.
“Most important though, for us, is that he is hungry, willing and eager to be even better and improve further.
“He believes in what we are trying to do here at Liverpool and is extremely keen to be part of it.”
Salah was seen as the perfect solution to a problem in the squad, fitting the exact description of the player needed by the Reds.
“We said after last season there are a few things we would try to involve in an already really good squad,” Klopp added. “One of the things is speed, being kind of a finisher, preparing chances, making goals and all that stuff. He brings all this in.
“He is a naturally fit boy – he can run as quick and as long as he wants. I’m really looking forward to [working with him].”
There were some unsure of Salah’s signing and the impact it would have, like Champions League winner Dietmar Hamann.
He told talkSPORT after the signing: “I’m not really sure what to expect from Salah.
“It’s clear he’s a very capable player, but we’ve seen it in recent years that some of the best players came to the Premier League and couldn’t adapt to it.
“So as much as I’m excited to have him, I’m also a bit cautious.
“That position is also probably the strongest part of Liverpool’s team. With [Philippe] Coutinho, [Adam] Lallana, [Sadio] Mane and [Roberto] Firmino already there, I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion he [Salah] will play.
But it wasn’t just Klopp and the Liverpool hierarchy who knew exactly what they was getting when Salah joined.
talkSPORT.com spoke to Roma fan Matteo Ciampani when the deal was done and he was very perceptive about how the Egyptian would work at Anfield.
“Salah needs a player that can help attract the defenders to give him space and time to attack the defensive line, especially without the ball,” he said.
“If Firmino will be able to do that, possibly playing like a ‘false 9’ then it could work. Even more important is having someone (Coutinho) able to pass him the perfect ball once he runs behind the defensive line.
“This is how Salah could become lethal.”
And true to the Ciampani’s idea, they clicked from the start.
Darren Bent says Liverpool should not rule out selling Mohamed Salah
He made his debut against Watford at Vicarage Road on August 12, 2017 where he won a penalty and scored his first goal for the club in the thrilling 3-3 draw.
It was the beginning of an incredible campaign that saw him score 44 goals in just 52 appearances in all competitions as well as winning the Premier League Golden Boot and being named Player of the Year.
Even Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane couldn’t resist talking about the winger in glowing terms.
“Salah is a great player. He showed that at Roma, now at Liverpool,” said the French legend.
“He’s still young and is improving all the time. I don’t talk much about other players, but he is a player I rate a lot.”
He also helped Liverpool to the Champions League final but he lasted just 30 minutes against Zidane’s Los Blancos before having to come off injured.
The score was 0-0 at the time and Liverpool went on to lose 3-1, but it could have been a different story if he had been able to carry on.
Even former teammates did not see this meteoric rise to Salah becoming one of the world’s best goalscorers.
When asked if he had seen Salah’s improvement coming, the forward’s ex-Chelsea and Roma teammate Ashley Cole told Sky Sports: “To be honest, no. I saw in training the ability that he had but he seems to have become more ruthless.
“I don’t mean selfish in a bad way, but he wants to score goals. That’s his job. He needs to score goals.
“[Salah], Firmino and Mane all play well together but I think he’s become a little bit more ‘it’s about me, it’s my time’.
“He’s had enough of other players, being in their shadow, and he wants to be the main man.”
The main man he continued to be for Liverpool during the 2018/19 season as he formed a formidable attack alongside Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
He again won the Premier League Golden Boot with a mere 22 goals and shared the prize with Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal.
The Reds were desperately unlucky not to win the Premier League title last season as they finished on 97 points, losing just once, and ending up a point behind Man City.
Their remarkable season did not end trophyless though, as Liverpool won the Champions League with Salah scoring a goal in the final to make amends for the disappointment suffered the year before.
Salah has become an icon off the pitch, also.
His form for Liverpool was credited with helping fight Islamophobia on Merseyside by a study conducted by the Immigration Policy Lab at Stanford University, in the United States.
It found hate crime had fallen in the area since his signing in 2017, with the report reading: “Salah’s arrival at Liverpool caused a decrease in extreme acts of bigotry.”
There were, reportedly, 18.9 per cent fewer hate crimes than predicted, and a 53 per cent fall in anti-Muslim tweets among Liverpool fans.
Meanwhile, he also spoke about the importance of gender equality as he was named as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2019.
Featured as one of the cover stars, he said: “I think we need to change the way we treat women in our culture. It’s not optional.
“I support the woman more than I did before, because I feel like she deserves more than what they give her now, at the moment.”
Back on the pitch, a drop in form was inevitable for the 27-year-old after the incredible first two seasons he had and that came at the start of 2019/20.
Even though he was still contributing goals and assists to his team, there were some quarters who thought he should be dropped because he was not playing to the same elite standard he had set.
Club legend Phil Thompson was one of those people who called into question his form, but Salah himself seemed unfazed by it all.
Addressing his form, Salah said: “To be honest, I don’t care what people expect from me.
“As much as the team is winning and scoring goals it’s fine. I don’t have to care what people expect from me because that puts more pressure on you and makes you not perform good.
“I’m just doing what I want I want to do and I feel happy about it.”
And the team has continued winning. Liverpool have not lost in the Premier League all season and are an incredible 22 points clear of closest rivals and reigning champions Manchester City.
Klopp’s side look set to win the title at a canter and could go the whole season without losing, matching Arsenal’s famed ‘Invincibles’.
Salah is approaching 100 Premier League games for Liverpool and has, remarkably, been on the losing side on only SIX occasions.
His signing, among others, has helped transform the Merseyside club into a juggernaut of a team – and it doesn’t look like Salah’s going to stop proving people wrong any time soon.
Saturday is GameDay on talkSPORT as we bring you THREE live Premier League commentaries, including Watford vs Liverpool at 5:30pm
