Liverpool’s Salah becomes all-time Egyptian scorer

Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah became the all-time most successful Egyptian player with a goal against Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.

Salah has now scored 314 goals in a brilliant career for club and country. Stats app Five Star Football said he equaled former Egypt captain Hossam Hassan’s record with a penalty in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Fulham on Wednesday.

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The goal was also his 186th for Liverpool since joining in 2017 and moved level with former captain Steven Gerrard, the fifth-highest goalscorer in club history. Ian Rush tops Liverpool all-time list with 346.

Salah has now also scored 30 goals and a century of goals at Liverpool’s iconic Anfield stadium this season.

“I think as an attacking player you have to have that desire to score goals, but a lot of people forget how many goals he creates so he’s just always, very, very often involved in goals,” Klopp told Sky Sports after the Liverpool won 1-0 in the Premier League.

“A lot of other players don’t appreciate people enough when they’re still playing and it’s clear to us that he’s an absolute great,” he added.

Egypt’s 30-year-old skipper Salah is Liverpool’s record goalscorer in the Premier League with 136 goals and has won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup with the club.

Salah’s other club goals he scored at AS Roma (34), Fiorentina (9), Chelsea (2), Basel (20) plus 12 for his childhood club Al-Mokawloon Al-Arab.

At international level, the exact number of goals scored by both players is debated. Salah has 51 but two of those came in a semi-official 10-0 friendly win over Swaziland in 2013.

Hossam, who earned 176 caps during a stellar 19-year international career which saw him earn three Africa Cup of Nations titles, is credited with 76 caps, although some of these are believed to have been played in unofficial matches.

With the win on Saturday. Fifth in the table, Klopp’s side still have an outside chance of making it to the Champions League next season and they need to keep winning if someone slips above them.

“It’s probably a bit more exciting than a couple of teams wanted for us, it’s good that we’ve been able to get back into that region of the table but we have to make sure we keep the teams behind us…nothing is decided,” he said as the season neared its peak.

“We have three games to go and then finally a slightly longer break, which helps a lot. You saw that today – Brentford had a full week between games, we played three days ago,” Klopp said.

“It’s a huge difference, especially in the latter stages of the game, (but) the guys got through it and I’m really happy about that.”

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.