The year was 2013, and a 21-year old little-known Egyptian had managed his first claim to fame. Some months before that night in London, he’d been found by the President and Sporting Director of a Swiss club at the time.

President Bernhard Heusler and Sporting Director Georg Hitz had hosted the Egypt U23-team in a friendly match. It was in preparation for the Egyptians’ 2012 London Olympics outing. While they played an entire nation, that was just by the way. Their eyes were on one player, and they needed to see him play. What they saw was mind-blowing and erased every form of doubt they had about his ability to impress them. The Egyptian attacker joined Basel the following month and has never looked back ever since.

In 2013, Basel were visitors to Stamford Bridge and were far from bookmakers’ favourites to carry the day. It was Jose Mourinho’s first Champions League game in his second coming to Chelsea, and Salah made it as bitter as possible. After grabbing Basel’s equaliser and performing excellently in London, he scored the Swiss side’s only goal in their second-leg victory against the Blues. They’d stunned the world and Salah was the proponent of their miracle. Before that moment, the Egyptian had struggled to cope with the rigours of European football after moving from local side Al Mokawloon. He faced challenges in getting to grips with the demands of a more advanced and faster style of football, but it was everything his strength pointed to, speed. His pace soon became the difference. After that big night against Chelsea at the St-Jakob Park, Salah made a declaration, typical of the desires of kings.

“I'm very proud to have scored two goals against Chelsea. I want to play for one of the best teams in the world. My favourites are Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea,” - Mohamed Salah
The club where he’d shine like a million stars was not amongst his preferred choices but Life happened to Salah, in pleasant ways.

BONUS: Where does Salah Rank Among Liverpools Great’s

That winner against Chelsea showed where Salah was as a person. He has never been one who revels in accolades. He always has his eyes to the sky but his feet firmly planted on the ground.

“I remember that winner against Chelsea. We tried to congratulate him in the locker room but he would not accept it. He said that he'd had seven shots and the first six had gone into the stands. He only attempted the seventh because he'd been shown such trust by his coach, colleagues, and everyone at the club. It was a great thing to say." - Bernhard Heusler, former Basel Chairman

Salah made a move to Chelsea, as the Londoners were impressed with what they saw. He had stung them, not once, but twice, and two counts for a thing. His Chelsea move wasn’t however altogether successful, as he failed to convince Mourinho. The environment he got at Basel was nowhere to be found in London. The weight of expectations were enormous, and Salah buckled underneath, scoring just two times in nineteen games. A loan move to Fiorentina would improve his confidence and output and AS Roma had seen enough to try their hands on him. In two seasons at Roma, he had 56 goal contributions in 83 games.

Jurgen Klopp was finding the perfect blocks to complete his squares in Anfield and his idea of football, which places great emphasis on pace and speed of attack. After rigorous searching, scouting, and planning, Sallah fit in seamlessly.

Liverpool went all out on Salah. They paid the most they had ever paid for a player and Salah made the big move. On his second coming to England, failure wasn’t an option. He’d grown in confidence, skill set, and experience, and everything was put to work in Merseyside.

The 2017/18 season saw Liverpool move for Salah and it announced the gradual becoming of the big force the Reds have turned in the last few years. The Egyptian didn’t take long to get in the mix as he scored 32 times and assisted 10 in 36 league games. In all competitions, he scored 44 goals in his debut season for the Reds. The most by a Liverpool debutant and the most by a Liverpool player in one season in the Premier League era. What’s a better way to announce yourself to the world?

Combining with fellow African, Sadio Mane and Brazilian, Roberto Firmino, Salah has become an important part of arguably the strongest attacking unit in club football today.

In 2018, he helped propel the Pharaohs beyond their Red Sea of World Cup failures, as they qualified for their first outing at the Mundial in almost three decades. A sapped Salah didn’t do much in Russia but rewrote a new period for his darling country.

Against Brentford, he continued his beastly and mercurial rise to greatness as he became the fastest Liverpool player ever to reach 100 league goals and also became Liverpool’s 10th best scorer in history moving ahead of San Raybould. Salah’s firepower is second to none, and his ability to smell blood and sniff out chances is rated amongst the best ever. Of all his 100 goals for Liverpool in the English elite division, 94 of them have come inside the box and just 6 came from outside it. He’s a player whose preference for processes rather than opportunism is well established and one who has risen with aplomb, winning the African Player of the Year award twice and also getting nominations as one of the best players in the world.

For a player of Salah’s roots and career trajectory, these achievements are by no means an ordinary feat. It’s his fifth season with Liverpool and he has achieved virtually everything in Merseyside, including helping to end three decades of an absence of the Premier League title in the Reds’ illustrious shelf and also winning the Champions League.

His achievements speak volumes about his graceful period and at 29, he still has the world as his oyster shells, ready to be conquered all over again, like the King he is.

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Lalasticlala, Mynd44