You can describe Liverpool winger Mo Salah by many different designations and adjectives: his nickname of “The King/Egyptian King/The Pharaoh,” PFA Player of the Year, world class both on and off the pitch, arguably the third best player alive/Ballon d’Or front-runner.
He is universally described as the best transfer buy of the year, and as it stands right now, one of the best bargains in Premier League history. Liverpool signed him from AS Roma this summer for a deal initially worth €42 million (£36.9m), with incentives adding an additional €8m (£7m).
Watching Salah score two goals and rack up two assists against his former club last night, in the Anfield leg of their Champions League semi-final tie, it’s only natural to question why the Roman club let him go.
Mo Salah did not celebrate his goals against his former club, just as he promised prior to the match. His parting of ways from the eternal city left no rift or bad blood, as it was just a business decision.
AS Roma Sporting Director Monchi gave an interview with Onda Cero radio and offered the following explanation:
“I sold him for more than €42m. We had a need to sell. We had no option but to sell Salah before June 30. Had we not done that, we probably wouldn’t be here playing the semifinal of the Champions League as we had UEFA closely monitoring us.”
Monchi explained, in an interview conducted after Liverpool won 5-2 in the Anfield leg of the semifinal, his club was feeling the pressure of not just Financial Fair Play regulations, but also a need to balance the books by the end of June:
“When I arrived, the offer was €30m but we managed to get it up to almost €50m with bonuses. That is what we could do. The market then went crazy with Neymar (breaking the transfer fee record to join Paris Saint-Germain, Coutinho and Dembele (both going to Barcelona for astronomical amounts of money).”
It all makes more sense now, even as Mo Salah reaches new heights that even the most optimistic observer could not have imagined. Monchi acknowledged the Egyptian international’s form and accomplishments:
“We congratulate Liverpool for buying him. We had to sell him and the player wanted to leave. Unfortunately, we suffered that on Tuesday night because we know of his quality. He is a very strong player.”
All roads lead to Rome next Wednesday night, for the second and final leg of the tie. Roma find themselves in a familiar situation, as they also entered the home leg of their tie in the previous round, versus Barcelona, down three goals.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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