Saudi Arabia's astronomical capital has begun to reach out to Premier League superstars again. This time, he is an Arab star.
The British version of The Athletic, a global sports media, said on the 25th that R Ittihad has reignited interest in Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.
The media said, "It remains to be seen whether Salah's deal will materialize at this stage. Liverpool still defines Salah as "NOT FOR SALE."
Salah's agent also wrote a social network (SNS) post directly denying Salah's connection with the Saudi club in early August.
Rami Abbas said on the 7th, "If we were leaving Liverpool this year, we would not have renewed our contract last summer. Salah is still committed to Liverpool.
Salah signed a new three-year contract with Liverpool last summer and became the highest-paid player in the club's history as his weekly salary rose to £350,000.
CBS Sports, a U.S. broadcaster, also conveyed R.T.Had's interest and said, "We are pushing to recruit Salah a year earlier than expected."
The media said, "Sala has been in the Saudi sovereign wealth fund's plan for a long time. They were expected to make Salah a major transfer in the summer of 2024. However, Al-Ittihad has decided to make Al-Ittihad the best squad possible before hosting the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Club World Cup in December, spurring the recruitment of Salah, he said.
R Ittihad currently has Karim Benzema, Ngolo Kante and Fabinho who played with Salah. Fabinho paid a whopping 40 million pounds (about 67 billion won) in transfer fees when he moved this summer.
"Sala will be offered a package salary that Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr) and Neymar (Al Hilal) receive," CBS Sports said. "The basic salary alone will be around 70 million euros (about 100.5 billion won) a year, and the total income will be twice that."
Al-Ittihad is a team led by Nunu Espiritu Santo, who led Tottenham Hotspur in the past, and is the winner of the Saudi professional league in the 2022/23 season. It is a prestigious team that belongs to Group C in the recently announced Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League and is trying to win three times in total.
In addition to the three mentioned above, R Ittihad currently has a striker named Jota, who played with Oh Hyun-kyu at Celtic. However, as he recently expressed dissatisfaction with the environment and announced that he would leave the team, he is expected to have a quota for foreign players. This is also cited as one of the factors that encourage Salah's transfer.
Salah was in his prime when he joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017. Since the 2017/18 season, he has scored 32 goals and 11 assists in the league and 10 goals in the UEFA Champions League, filling his previous ruined Premier League career at Chelsea with perfect offense.
Salah, who played 307 Liverpool games, scored 187 goals and 80 assists, and scored 140 goals and 60 assists in 233 Premier League games, won the Premier League Golden Boot (scoring king) three times (2017/18, 2018/19, 2021/22) and was also named Player of the Year in the 2017/18 season. In the 2021/22 season, he won the Playmaker of the Year award with 14 assists at the same time as the Golden Boot.
He beat Tottenham Hotspur in the 2018/19 season and led Liverpool to its sixth career Champions League title, and also led Liverpool to its first-ever Premier League title the following season.
Salah also set footprints for Egypt. He led his country to the World Cup stage for the first time in 28 years since the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The A-match record is 49 goals in 88 matches.
Moreover, it is more meaningful in that Saudi Arabia, the representative country of the Arab world, embraces the stars of Egypt, the same Arab world.
Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), who has already won the treble (Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League) as one of the Arab stars, headed to Al Ahli and is ambitious to embrace Salah. From Saudi Arabia's point of view, it can create a justification for even Egyptian soccer fans to watch the Saudi League.
For now Salah keeps playing for Liverpool. Salah, who scored one goal and one assist in the previous two games, will prepare for the third round of the Premier League against Newcastle United at 0:30 a.m. on the 28th at St. James Park in Newcastle upon Tyne.