The situation of Mohamed Salah’s former Liverpool colleagues in the Gulf state should serve as a serious cautionary tale, even though the player may be travelling to Saudi Arabia next year.
Before the season even began, the summer migration to Saudi Arabia posed a severe danger to Liverpool’s recovery. However, after a few months, the players who chose to follow their finances may now be regretting their choices.
Naturally, there has been a lot of talk about how Jordan Henderson’s poorly planned move is already going south. His decision to essentially turn his back on the LGBT+ community, for which he had previously mobilised so forcefully, has been the subject of much controversy, making him a target of derision whenever he plays for the England team. After being chosen by Gareth Southgate for the next international break again, he can likely anticipate more jeers later this month.
To be honest, it’s puzzling how devoted the England manager still is to the former captain of Liverpool. Henderson is obviously not performing at the same level as he did when he was with the Reds earlier in the season, and you have to wonder where Southgate draws the line when the spectators begin to thin out and Al-Ettifaq has only won one of its previous five games.
However, Henderson isn’t the only one who isn’t enjoying himself much in the Middle East. Both Fabinho and Roberto Firmino, his former colleagues, are having equally difficult times; the former is now being linked to yet another transfer in January.
Firmino could not have had a better start to his career in Saudi Arabia. The Brazilian was poised to storm the Pro League after scoring a hat-trick in his Al-Ahli debut against Al-Hazem, but in the 12 games since, he has failed to score a goal.
Goal reports that fans are urging the 32-year-old to be sold immediately, and TeamTalk has now indicated that Al-Ahli is prepared to let go of the attacker. That would be the ultimate fall from grace for Firmino, who only a few months ago had his name signed by every corner of Anfield.
That ought to be Mohamed Salah’s first serious warning. The Saudi Pro League is obviously interested in the Egyptian, and their intentions were made abundantly evident when Al-Ittihad rejected a $184 million (£150 million/€172 million) deal for the player in the summer.
Salah’s age of thirty-two years old and the fact that he is approaching the last twelve months of his Liverpool contract have caused many to speculate that this may be his last season wearing red. However, the winger isn’t slowing down as his old colleagues did, and Jürgen Klopp doesn’t seem to want to let him go.
“He knows how players react to him and if he cannot score he can still be a threat for us and that’s super important,” Klopp said last month. “I cannot compare Mo to other 30-odd-year-old players because I don’t think biologically he is.”
Therefore, Saudi Arabia doesn’t seem like the best place for a player who is still performing at the highest level of the game. Furthermore, Robbie Fowler’s story, which includes the former Liverpool striker being cruelly fired after guiding Al Qadsiah to an undefeated start, as well as Firmino’s own demonstrate why this isn’t the place to go when your career is coming to an end.
The nation obviously has an endless supply of money, therefore there will probably be a lot of player churn, especially considering the regulation allowing teams to sign up to eight international players. Salah has a good chance of persuading anybody that he was someone worth hanging onto, but is the risk really worth it?
You just need to ask the plethora of players who have left Anfield in recent years to understand how challenging it can be to manage without Klopp. The fact that the grass isn’t always greener is demonstrated by players like Philippe Coutinho, Gini Wijnaldum, Sadio Mané, and many more.
Salah is performing well enough this year to suggest that he would be worth staying with Liverpool over his contract’s expiration in 2025. Moving to Saudi Arabia the next year doesn’t seem like the best course of action, at the very least.