Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah has opened up on his four footballing heroes during his come-up to becoming a formidable force in the Premier League, with one of his picks taking plenty of fans by surprise.
Salah, 32, owes plenty of credit to the Reds for spotting his talent while plying his trade for Italian side AS Roma. He’s since become one of the English top flight’s modern greats with his penchant for goalscoring an invaluable asset to the Merseyside-based outfit.
But behind every superstar in world football is inspiration. Before the 101-cap Egypt international broke through as one of the greatest Africans to ever play in the Premier League, who was there to be his inspiration?
In the latest instalment of ‘Reds Roundtable’ on Liverpool’s YouTube channel, the one-time Champions League winner spoke about who inspired him in the infancy of his career as a professional footballer.
Brazilian Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane – both legends of the game in their own right – were name-dropped by the winger. As was Roma legend Francesco Totti, who is widely regarded as one of the best players in the history of Serie A.
“I love the way Ronaldo [of Brazil] was playing and [Zinedine] Zidane and [Francesco] Totti. These guys, I always looked at them and they just enjoy the game.
He also waxed lyrical about Cristiano Ronaldo’s dedication to staying at the apex of his abilities, “Cristiano [Ronaldo] was also the one when I started playing in Europe more, you see the way he dedicated everything to football is insane, the way he looks after himself. You can see everything, his numbers. But these guys I looked at when I was young, and I just wished to play one game with them, or to be like them one day.
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It was in the Italian capital where Salah first captured the imagination of his current employers, tempting them to make a bid of £34.3 million in the summer of 2017, and it was while playing for Roma that he had the pleasure of featuring alongside the aforementioned Totti. Sharing the pitch together 28 times, equating to 614 minutes of action, Salah recounted their ‘incredible time’ together, shedding light on his technical abilities and down-to-earth persona.
“I had a good opportunity to play with Totti and I played with him for two years in Rome. It was an incredible time, I just loved it. He was incredible to be fair and his technique was insane. Very, very good person as well.”
