Celebrating Two Years of Mohamed Salah

Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Running down the wing!

Two years ago today, Liverpool’s Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah, joined the club for £34.8M from Roma. The fee didn’t quite break Liverpool’s transfer record at the time, but it came close.

What followed were two of the most exciting seasons of football for the club, with Salah helping the Reds reach the Champions League final twice and nabbing back-to-back Premier League Golden Boots and African Player of the Year awards. Not bad for a player who many had overlooked as another Chelsea reject.

It’s rare for a signing to work out for Liverpool the way that Salah has. Rarer still is it for a club to sign two massively influential and relatively undervalued attackers in successive years the way that Liverpool did with Salah and Sadio Mané before him.

In fact, the partnership between the two African wingers and Roberto Firmino in the center has become, paradoxically, the fiercest and most delightful front three in world football.

The club’s official Twitter account has gotten into the action today, commemorating the anniversary with a celebratory Tweet and video.

The ECHO also wrote up an interesting article chronicling the transfer committee’s four year love affair with the player who they tried to nab in 2013, before his doomed season in London.

“Liverpool [under Brendan Rodgers] wanted me for a number of months, they opened talks in October 2013,” according to Salah. “I was waiting to go to Liverpool, I wanted to go because it was a club I really liked. Then I received a phone call directly from Jose Mourinho and everything changed.

”He explained the situation, and said that I was a good player and Chelsea needed me. That was one of the main reasons why I didn’t go to Liverpool and chose Chelsea instead.”

That failed stint at Chelsea didn’t dim their appreciation for him many fine attributes, and when Jürgen Klopp arrived, it seemed that Salah was a player that he and his new scouts immediately agreed upon.

“We watched Salah so often, saw him so often,” he said. “The scouting department was really behind me, and wanted to do it even earlier so that nobody could jump in!

”We were sure he can help us. Michael Edwards, Dave Fallows and Barry, they were really in my ear and were on it: ‘Come on, come on, Mo Salah, he’s the solution!’”

From his first goal in that 3-3 draw on opening day against Watford to his 71st in the Champions League final against Spurs, Salah has given Reds fans so many memorable moments over the last two years.

Brates getting Starbucks, Instagram thirst photos, mosaics in Time Square, yoga-inspired goal celebrations: what has been your favorite thing about Mo Salah since he arrived?

If he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me. Score another few, and I’ll be Muslim too!