Mohamed Salah signs new three-year Liverpool contract to extend Anfield stay

Mohamed Salah has signed a new long-term contract at Liverpool, ending speculation that he could depart on a free transfer next summer.

Along with Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, who has since departed to Bayern Munich, Salah was the third member of Jurgen Klopp’s front line who was heading into the final 12 months of his deal, but is now contracted to remain at Anfield until 2025.

A reported salary of around £350,000 a week would put him far ahead of other top earners at the club, on a par with the Premier League’s top talent at Manchester City and Manchester United.

The Egyptian has been a runaway success since joining from Roma five years ago, scoring 156 goals in 254 appearances and winning each of the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup along the way, plus the Fifa Club World Cup.

With a long-running stalemate on contract talks, however, there remained the possibility that a player spoken about as a Ballon d’Or candidate could depart for nothing. That has now been averted, with Salah now sure to surge up the Reds’ top all-time scorers list - he’s currently ninth, but Steven Gerrard is just 30 ahead of him in fifth.

The Reds confirmed he had put pen to paper on an extension on Friday afternoon, with Salah stating upon signing the deal his intention to fight for more silverware at Anfield.

“I feel great and [I am] excited to win trophies with the club. It’s a happy day for everyone. It takes a little bit of time, I think, to renew, but now everything is done so we just need to focus on what’s next.

“I think you can see in the last five or six years the team was always going [upwards]. Last season we were close to winning four, but unfortunately in the last week of the season we lost two trophies.

“I think we are in a good position to fight for everything. We have new signings as well. We just need to keep working hard, have a good vision, be positive and go for everything again.”

Liverpool have already added to the forward line with the big-money addition of Darwin Nunez, effectively a Mane replacement, while fellow attackers Takumi Minamino and Divock Origi have also left the club this summer.

Salah was named the FWA Footballer of the Year and the PFA Players’ Player of the Year for 202/22, while also ending the campaign as the Premier League’s joint-Golden Boot winner with Tottenham’s Son Heung-min.

Separately, Liverpool’s teenage Brazilian understudy goalkeeper Marcelo Pitaluga has joined Macclesfield Town on loan for the season.