Roma winger Mohammed Salah has revealed that he rejected advances from Liverpool to sign for Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. The Egyptian winger was playing for FC Basel and was deep in negotiations with Liverpool, but revealed that a phone call from Mourinho swayed his opinion.
Speaking to MBC Masr, Salah revealed his how close he came to joining Liverpool, saying “Liverpool had wanted me for a number of months. They had opened talks in October 2013.”
Salah had come to the spotlight after a string of impressive perfomances for FC Basel in the Champions League, although he pointed out that money was a stumbling fee in the move to Liverpool, saying “Negotiations took a long time, because Basel rejected more than one offer. They felt the transfer fee was not that high.”
“I was waiting for Liverpool [to agree terms with Basel] because I really like Liverpool. I was eager to join them.”
However, a phone call from Jose Mourinho swayed Salah’s choice and the Egyptian winger signed for Chelsea in the January of 2014. Salah recounted the events leading to his signing saying “But then I received a phone call from Mourinho and that changed everything. He explained the situation to me and told me that he needed me at Chelsea.”
“That was one of the main reasons why I joined Chelsea. Mourinho told me that he thought I was a good player and that he wanted me to pick Chelsea.”
Salah’s move turned out to be a mistake
While Mohammed Salah did perform when called upon for Chelsea, Jose Mourinho rarely afforded the Egyptian winger an opportunity to shine for the Blues. The 23-year-old barely managed to make a dent for Chelsea, scoring only twice in a paltry 13 appearaces for the club.
Having failed to break through for the first team, Salah went out on loan to Italian side Fiorentina, where he took to Serie A like a duck to water, scoring six times for the Viola in 16 appearances and quickly becoming a fan favourite.
However, Salah surprised everyone in the summer, when he opted to go on loan to AS Roma, with an option to make the deal permanent. It seems increasingly likely that the Gialorossi will make the move permanent, with Salah becoming one of the pivotal figures of the team, scoring 13 times in 27 appearances, the last of which was a brace for Roma in the Roman derby against Lazio, which cements his fan favourite status.
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