Liverpool’s interest in maintaining Mohamed Salah at Anfield despite interest from Saudi Arabia is warranted, given he has been ranked among the world’s best athletes.
Throughout Jürgen Klopp’s time at Liverpool, fans have argued over who is the club’s most valuable player. Most often cited are Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, while Trent Alexander-Arnold and ex-Reds midfielder Fabinho have also been considered.
You could make an argument for any of them, but it’s hard to deny that they’re all less famous than Salah. With over six times as many as Van Dijk’s (14.9 million), the Egyptian has considerably more Instagram followers than any other Reds player (62.5 million). According to GiveMeSport, Salah had the seventh-highest global football fanbase in June 2023.
It came as little surprise, then, when SportsPro, on Tuesday, issued their list of the 50 most marketable athletes in 2023. Lionel Messi of Inter Miami is at the top, followed by LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and Alex Morgan of USWMT and the San Diego Wave in third.
Scores in a number of categories, such as brand strength and addressable market, were used to determine the rankings, which were developed with North Star Solutions Group. Twenty footballers, including Salah, made the cut, with six hailing from the Premier League.
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) is, perhaps surprisingly, the leader in that subgroup (26), with Erling Haaland (Manchester City) seven places lower despite setting a new goals record in the competition last year. Salah beat out Marcus Rashford of Manchester United to take 39th place, one position ahead of Thiago Silva of Chelsea in 35th and three spots ahead of Son Heung-min of Tottenham in 36th.
In 2019, he was named GQ Middle East’s Man of the Year and was included on TIME 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the globe. He is also possibly the most famous Arab athlete in the world. That makes him not only a goalscoring machine, but also a major asset in expanding Liverpool’s global brand and attracting sponsors.
For this reason, among others, Al-Ittihad, a club in the Saudi Pro League, offered an exorbitant $182m (£150m/€173m) to buy him at the close of the previous transfer window. If he leaves Liverpool, the Reds will lose more than just a football player, something that FSG, with James as a shareholder, will be well aware of.