Mohamed Salah has mostly been busy setting new records at Liverpool this season, and there are still plenty more in his sights. But he has now seen one of his previous landmarks beaten in the Champions League.
It has been a remarkable first year under Arne Slot for Salah, who remains in with a shot at the Ballon d’Or despite the early elimination from the Champions League denting his prospects. Surpassing even his debut campaign at Anfield, the Egyptian has caused the records to tumble.
With 44 goal contributions, Salah has tied the record for a 38-game Premier League season. Four more in his last nine will earn him the all-time record outright.
Meanwhile, he’s been flying up the Liverpool and Premier League overall scoring charts. He’s now third in the club’s long and storied history, with a better goals-to-games ratio than anyone else in the top 50, and joint-fifth in the league stakes alongside Sergio Aguero.
A particularly prolific end to the season could even see Salah take out the single-season goal record set by Erling Haaland, and the assist record set by Thierry Henry. Breaking both in the same campaign would be ludicrous, and especially satisfying given that the Liverpool man was previously in possession of the goal record.
Yet despite all this brilliance, Salah has actually been surpassed in one Champions League department. Serhou Guirassy has been on a somewhat unlikely tear for Borussia Dortmund.
(Image: Hendrik Deckers/Borussia Dortmund via Getty Images)
While Jurgen Klopp’s former club is toiling in tenth in the Bundesliga, it has progressed to the last eight in Europe. That march has been led by Guirassy, who has bagged ten goals and five assists.
Two assists in the latest win over Lille moved Guirassy onto 15 goal contributions in the competition. This eclipsed the tally of 14 set by Salah, which was previously the most ever recorded in a single Champions League season by an African player.
Dortmund has booked a quarter-final against Barcelona, which has to be one of the favorites to win the whole thing (perhaps along with PSG). Yet the Catalans have not exactly been watertight on their march through the tournament, so Guirassy will have the chance to extend his lead further, though it’s a big ask to chase down Cristiano Ronaldo’s overall record of 22 from 2013/14.
Whether Salah ever gets the chance to respond depends on his next move. Should he leave Liverpool for Saudi Arabia, the heartbreaking defeat to PSG might prove to be his last ever appearance in the Champions League.
Incidentally, that underlines why such a move would be a travesty, with Salah having plenty left to give on the biggest stages. But whatever comes next, he will be laser-focused on bagging some more records before the season is out, even though Guirassy has just nicked this one off him.
