Premier League top scorer Mohamed Salah has said he will only leave the club alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk once they have won the top flight again.
The Reds are six points clear of Arsenal with a game in hand at the top of the table in their first season under manager Arne Slot, but the focus has increasingly fallen upon whether iconic forward Salah, captain Van Dijk and wideman Alexander-Arnold will renew their deals once they expire at the end of the campaign.
“My motivation this year was to win a trophy and be a big part of winning that trophy – especially the Premier League,” Salah told Sky Sports, discussing the squad assembled by Slot’s predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, whose trophies including the 2018/19 Champions League and 2019/20 Premier League.
“There is still half of [that] team left like me, Trent, Virgil, Alisson, Robbo [Andy Robertson]. It’s necessary for us to win another trophy before we all go.”
🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: Mo Salah has confirmed it’s his last season at Liverpool:
🗣️ “I really want to win the Premier League this season as it’s my last year at the club. I want to give something special to the City.”
(Source: @SkySports ) pic.twitter.com/TmvJXkAlCU
— Transfer News Live (@DeadlineDayLive) January 3, 2025
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Salah contract: ‘No progress’
Salah has top-scored for Liverpool every season since arriving from Roma in 2017 and been in sensational form in 2024/25, scoring 20 times and setting up 17 goals in 26 matches in all competitions.
The 32-year-old said the circumstances of Liverpool’s last title win, which took place during the Covid pandemic, meant their squad “didn’t really have time to celebrate it in the right way”.
“There is no progress there,” he said of the prospect of extending his contract. “We are far away from any progress. We just need to wait and see.
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) January 3, 2025
“The thing in my head is that if this is the last six months, what do you want to see in the future? Do you want to look back and say ‘I was concerned or stressed about the contract’?
“Or do you just want to say ‘I had an unbelievable season’? That’s what is in my head. If I ever feel distraction, I just remind myself I want to look back and say I had an unbelievable season.”
Reporter Patrick Davison, who spoke to Salah, said he believed the Egypt captain “wants to extend his time at Liverpool”.
“During the interview, he again said it was his ‘last year’ with the club,” Davison added. “But I believe he doesn’t want that to be the case.”
The Egyptian King on top of the world 🌍@MoSalah x @LFC pic.twitter.com/axWpHPhArT
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 1, 2025
Premier League title: Salah ‘wants big numbers’
“I am really motivated to win the Premier League,” reiterated Salah. “I don’t just want to have a small part. I want to win it and then for people to say ‘he made the difference and made the team win’.
“Arsenal are catching us. [Fourth-placed] Chelsea are catching us. [Sixth-placed reigning champions] Man City will come back, for sure.
“It’s very tricky but we just have to stay focused, don’t take it for granted and keep working hard. I don’t want to get to the end of the season and say ‘I had unbelievable numbers but the team didn’t win anything’. I just want to win the trophy and have the big numbers.”
Salah on Slot: Klopp ‘had one system’
Klopp won every major trophy available during almost nine years at Liverpool before taking a break from management at the end of last season.
Former Feyenoord manager Slot has overseen 23 wins and one defeat from his first 27 games, including victories in all six of Liverpool’s opening Champions League matches and three Carabao Cup ties.
Arne 👊 pic.twitter.com/mlzsW4Mja1
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 3, 2025
“The new manager has come in with a new idea which helps the team… maybe things have changed slightly, which makes us all want it more and want to win more,” said Salah.
“That doesn’t mean we didn’t want to win more, but change can help the team and I have never been motivated to win the Premier League.
“With Jurgen, we had one system all the time. We stuck to what we were doing with him, it didn’t matter what.
“We did that for seven to eight years. The new manager changes something slightly, depending on the game. We didn’t do that before.”
Liverpool are on a 23-game unbeaten run before facing Manchester United, who are 14th and 23 points behind them, at Anfield on Sunday (4.30pm GMT)
