Saudi Arabia’s billion-dollar transfer market assault on football’s traditional order has gone to another level, with Al Ittihad making a bombshell play for Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah.
Al Ittihad, one of four clubs owned by the nation’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), have already signed Liverpool’s Fabinho for £40m this off-season, as well as French stars Karim Benzema (the reigning Ballon d’Or winner for the world’s best player) and N’Golo Kante.
But 31-year-old Egyptian Salah has been labelled their top target, though a move was rejected by Liverpool and Salah earlier in the transfer window.
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Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, took to social media earlier this month to write: “If we considered leaving LFC this year, we wouldn’t have renewed the contract last summer. Mohamed remains committed to LFC.”
Salah is the highest-paid player in Liverpool history on a reported deal worth around £350,000 per week, and has two seasons remaining on the deal (including this year).
But the prospect of an astronomical pay rise appears to have tempted the player. BeIN Sports has claimed that the player has accepted a contract offer from Al Ittihad, while reporter Ben Jacobs stated the salary would be £65m or $A127.6m per year over three years, not including bonuses or endorsements. Other reports have claimed the figure is even higher.
However, The Athletic reported on Thursday that Livepool have told Al-Ittihad that Salah is “not for sale”, with Sky Sports stating the Reds would not sell regardless of how much they were offered.
A major complicating factor for Liverpool and other English clubs is that their transfer window closes on the 1st of September, while the Saudi Pro League’s transfer window remains open until the 20th – meaning Premier League sides could lose players and have no chance to replace them.
At the start of this month, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp complained about that fact.
“The influence of Saudi Arabia is massive at the moment,” Klopp said.
“Pretty much the worst thing is that the transfer window in Saudi Arabia is open three weeks longer. If I am right, I heard something like that, then at least in Europe that’s not helpful.
“Uefa or Fifa must find solutions for that. It’s already influential for us but we will have to learn to deal with it.”
