Mohamed Salah has hinted that his main target for next season will be to win the Champions League following Liverpool‘s domestic success.
The Reds were crowned Premier League champions on April 27 after beating Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 at Anfield, with the club achieving the title with four games to spare.
Supporters were worried that the team’s success on the pitch could have been derailed by contract negotiations with Virgil van Dijk, Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and while the latter has announced his intention to leave the club, the former two have signed extensions.
Salah in an interview with France Football talked about the difficult nature of negotiations with Liverpool while also hinting at his ambition to win the Champions League, saying: “It was a possibility [to leave], yes. It was actually a bit strange, we were really going strong this season, and there was this negotiation that wasn’t easy.
“The possibility that it would be my last season here, perhaps, gave me the desire to make the most of it and give everything I had to win the title I had promised. I had this mindset: if the club doesn’t want to extend my contract, no worries, let’s finish as well as possible so I can leave with a bang.
“I even said it was my main goal [to win the Premier League]. This is the first time in my career that I have placed the Championship above the Champions League. It was such a heartbreak not to be able to celebrate with our fans in 2020, due to the pandemic, that I absolutely wanted, along with the whole team, to offer this to our fans and the city. Nine months later, promise kept.”
The Egyptian won the Champions League in the 2018-19 season and now that he has helped Liverpool earn a second league title, it would not be surprising if he set his sights back on winning Europe’s premier club competition.
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How Salah can lead Liverpool to Champions League glory
Salah was named Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year for the third time on Friday – tying the record with Thierry Henry – by the biggest winning margin this century.
Having scored 28 Premier League goals and provided 18 assists this season, there is an argument that he should be considered favourite for the Ballon d’Or.
While his form in the Champions League was still strong considering he scored three times and registered four assists in nine games, he did struggle to influence matches against the likes of Paris Saint-Germain.
It should be noted that Liverpool struggled as a collective against PSG, and perhaps in order to maximise Salah’s output and ensure that he can be at his best in Europe next term, boss Arne Slot will need to make a number of additions.
Cody Gakpo is second in terms of direct goal contributions for Liverpool this season (22), but he falls significantly short of Salah’s tally of 56 goals and assists.
The Egyptian would prove to be even more of a threat on the biggest stage if Liverpool’s goal threat was more diversified, as opposing defenders would be torn when prioritising who to defend against.
Signing athletic forwards could also be key given Salah is 32 and may need others to make runs for him in order to open up space in attack.
