After nine extraordinary years, Mohamed Salah has confirmed he will leave Liverpool at the end of the current season – and in a remarkable show of goodwill, both parties have agreed to cut short his contract a full year early, allowing the Egyptian to depart as a free agent this summer despite his deal running until 2027.
As the dust settles on one of the Premier League’s greatest careers, attention has quickly turned to what comes next for both for Salah and Liverpool. The Saudi Pro League remains the overwhelming favourite as his next destination, with Al-Ittihad already reported to have resumed their pursuit. MLS clubs including Chicago Fire and San Diego FC had also been touted.
From Liverpool’s perspective, the financial aspect of letting Salah go early seems to have played a part in the decision. Former Manchester City financial adviser Stefan Borson plainly, speaking to Football Insider, has explained that the club chose to waive a transfer fee in exchange for wage relief.
As a result, Liverpool will save around £25-30m in what would have been Salah’s annual wage in 2026/27:
“Well, it’s just a trade-off really between his annual cost for Liverpool in that final season of between £25-30m all in and the fee that they could recover from elsewhere,” said Borson.
“Now, the problem that Liverpool have got, and the problem that’s around the league really, is where do players of his earnings go? In reality, Salah is only going to go to the US or to Saudi Arabia. It’s very hard to see that he would go anywhere else for that kind of money at that kind of age after this kind of season. You look at it and you go, ‘Well, you know that the US are not going to pay a fee much more than about probably $15-20m (£11.3-£15.1m).”
In short, Liverpool have calculated that the saving in wages outweighs what they would realistically recover in any transfer fee they could have got.
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