There is something quietly devastating about the way Mohamed Salah chose to break the news. A video in front of his trophy collection, speaking slowly and directly into the camera, his voice calm in a way that suggested the decision had long been made. “Unfortunately, the day has come,” he said. “This is the first part of my farewell. I will be leaving Liverpool at the end of this season.”
Liverpool confirmed the departure in a measured statement, noting that Salah had asked to make the announcement as early as possible “due to his respect and gratitude” for the fans. The club described it as a mutual agreement, reached roughly a year into a two-year extension he signed last April after leading Liverpool to a 20th league title. That contract, it turns out, will be cut short by a full season.
The official statistics frame the scale of what is being lost with uncomfortable clarity. Salah leaves third on Liverpool’s all-time scoring list, with 255 goals in 435 appearances, trailing only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
His 281 goal contributions — 189 goals and 92 assists — are the most any player has accumulated at a single club throughout the Premier League era. Four Golden Boots, three PFA Player of the Year awards, two league titles and a Champions League sit alongside a Club World Cup and multiple domestic cups.
But the departure is not entirely clean. The 2025-26 season has been his most turbulent at Anfield, shaped by a deeply uncomfortable falling-out with manager Arne Slot. At the end of December, after being an unused substitute in Liverpool’s draw at Leeds, Salah gave an impromptu pitch-side interview that sent shockwaves through the club. “I don’t know why, but it seems to me that someone doesn’t want me in the club,” he told reporters. He accused those in power of throwing him “under the bus,” and admitted his relationship with Slot had effectively broken down.
Salah later apologised to his teammates for the distraction, but the damage to the public narrative was done. Since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, he regained his starting place but never quite recaptured his most electric form, the kind that made him so undroppable in the first place. Slot, for his part, was measured in his response following the departure announcement, saying that “Mo has always given everything for this club” and that he hoped to see Salah add two more trophies before the season ends.
That remains genuinely possible. Liverpool are in the quarter-finals of both the FA Cup and the Champions League, with PSG standing between them and a European semi-final, and ten more games still to play in league and cup. The club’s season-defining stretch comes now, with Salah central to their ambitions despite the cloud of a goodbye already hanging over him.
His next destination remains unresolved. The Saudi Pro League continues to circle, with Al Qadsiah managed by Brendan Rodgers emerging as one of the more credible possibilities. MLS commissioner Don Garber has made no secret of his desire to bring Salah to America, while Barcelona and Galatasaray have been floated, though neither appears likely given his wages and age. Inter Miami lacks the Designated Player slot to accommodate him, and PSG have moved away from the era of ageing superstars.
The irony is that the announcement came during the international break, which Salah and Liverpool confirmed was deliberate — intended to avoid disrupting the final stretch of a season in which genuine glory is still within reach. That thoughtfulness, that awareness of the club’s interests even in the act of leaving, says something about the man. “This club will always be my home, to me and to my family,” he said. The relationship was complicated at the end, but it was never empty.
Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, the farewell tour is now officially underway. Anfield will find an appropriate way to mark the occasion when the time comes. The bigger headache for Arne Slot is figuring out how to replace someone who has been scoring 20 or more goals a season for the better part of a decade.