Mohamed Salah committed his long-term future to Liverpool on Friday by signing a new three-year deal.
The Egypt international was due to be out of contract at the end of the upcoming season, leading to strong links with a move away from Anfield.
However, out of the blue, Salah has penned an extension to – temporarily, at least – bring an end to speculation over his future.
After losing Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich, albeit with Darwin Nunez signed as a replacement of sorts, tying down Salah is a major boost for Liverpool ahead of the new season.
Here, Stats Perform looks at just how important Salah has been for Liverpool over the past five years, and how his record compares to Europe s other elite attackers.
A love letter to from the people of Liverpool…
— Liverpool FC (@LFC)
ALREADY AMONG LIVERPOOL GREATS
It is difficult to remember now, but Salah s arrival from Roma in a deal rising to £43million raised more than a few eyebrows due to his disappointing earlier spell with Chelsea.
Six major honours later, including one as a key part in the club s first Premier League title triumph, and Salah will go down as one of Liverpool s all-time greats.
The 30-year-old has made 254 appearances for the Reds in total, 235 of those being starts, and has scored 156 goals while assisting 58 more.
Those 156 goals rank him ninth on the list of Liverpool s record scorers, with considerable ground to make up on Ian Rush at the top of that list with 346 goals.
CLOSING IN ON GERRARD RECORD
Salah might struggle to overhaul Rush, but he will also have another record in his sights when the 2022-23 campaign gets up and running next month.
With 164 direct goal involvements in the Premier League, Salah trails only Steven Gerrard (212) among Reds players in the competition in that regard.
Indeed, only two players from Europe s top five leagues have scored and assisted more goals across the same period – Robert Lewandowski (184) and Lionel Messi (200).
Kylian Mbappe, seen by many as the most desirable player in world football, is fourth on that list on 163 goal involvements, while Ciro Immobile is fifth with 159.
PREMIER LEAGUE PEDIGREE
Salah has scored 118 goals for Liverpool in the Premier League alone, which is 13 more than next-best Harry Kane among all clubs since the start of the 2017-18 season.
Those strikes have helped Salah to three Golden Boot awards – only Arsenal legend Thierry Henry (4) has finished top of the competition s scoring charts more often.
The former Basel forward also ranks top for minutes per goal among those to have played at least 100 times (126 minutes per goal), shots (678) and touches in the opposition box (1,575).
However, one metric he does not lead is assists, with Manchester City s Kevin De Bruyne boasting 58 to Salah s 46.
MORE TO COME FROM MO
Salah s output has been consistent across his five years at Anfield, starting between 45 and 49 games a season and registering double figures for assists in all but one of those campaigns.
He has remained a prolific scorer throughout, with a high of 44 goals in the 2017-18 season and a low – but still respectable – 23 in the 2019-20 campaign. The latter was the season when Liverpool won the Premier League.
The Al Mokawloon youth product has managed 31 goals in each of the past two seasons, while the 15 assists registered last season was a career-high.
All that suggests Salah is far from finished on Merseyside, and with a new three-year deal signed, Liverpool fans have plenty more to look forward to from their Egyptian king .
