Liverpool chief says it wasn’t Klopp who wanted to sign Salah

Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore has revealed the process of signing Mohamed Salah from Roma in 2017.

The Reds signed the Egypt forward from the Serie A side in 2017 for a bargain £36.9m, rising to £43.9m.

The deal, at the time was a record for Liverpool, and looked to be somewhat of a gamble after Salah’s time at Chelsea had gone wrong.

Salah scored just two goals in 19 games and was loaned to Fiorentina and Roma before he made a permanent move to Rome in the summer of 2016 for a reported fee of €15m.

The pacy striker impressed in Serie A with 29 goals in 65 appearances for Roma, which alerted Liverpool.

“Mo is a great story. He came in from Roma and that was the sports analytics team that spotted him.

 

 

“Obviously, people see him from Chelsea – remember, he was a Chelsea player – and [Jose] Mourinho didn’t rate him and they let him go,” Moore told Soccer Laduma in a Q&A at Cape Town Official Liverpool Supporters Club.

“He went on to Fiorentina and ended up at Roma, but there was something, analytically, that our sports science team saw in him and kept popping his name to the top of the list.”

According to Football Benchmark in October, Salah is the most valuable right-sided forward in the Premier League,  And at €160m he is also the most valuable individual player in the country.

READ MORE: Peter Moore addresses bizarre pleas for Liverpool to re-sign Steven Gerrard