While Liverpool manager Arne Slot appears confident in his team’s strength without Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian forward’s absence in recent weeks has been glaring, with the Reds struggling to find goals without their talisman.
There is little doubt Liverpool want their Egyptian King back at Anfield as soon as possible. However, Salah is fully focused on extending his stay at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco, making no secret of how much the tournament means to him.
“I have won almost every honour in the game,” Salah said on Saturday, “but this is the one I am waiting for.
“Everyone wants to achieve something for his country, so I hope we succeed. I think there is no one in Egypt who wants to win the Africa Cup of Nations more than me. I have achieved everything except this title.”
Salah has come painfully close in the past. Egypt were beaten in the final four years ago and also lost the 2017 AFCON decider to Cameroon. When Salah says he has been withstanding the pressure of expectation for some time, it reflects years of near misses.
Encouragingly for the Egyptian star, his decisive goal in the 3–2 quarter-final victory over Ivory Coast has moved him to within two matches of achieving his long-held dream. Standing in his way once again, however, is Sadio Mané.
The Senegalese forward has long been one of Salah’s fiercest rivals, even during their time as teammates at Liverpool. Questions have often been raised about why the duo never fully clicked off the pitch, with Mané himself once suggesting that the tension may have stemmed from the Egypt–Senegal rivalry in African competitions.
Before becoming teammates at Anfield in 2017, Salah and Mané had only faced each other twice internationally, during the 2014 AFCON qualifiers. However, it has been suggested that a series of high-stakes encounters between Egypt and Senegal in early 2022 contributed to Mané’s departure from Liverpool later that year.
Despite the intense rivalry, Mané showed sportsmanship during Senegal’s victories over Egypt in both the AFCON final and the World Cup qualification play-off, converting decisive penalties on each occasion. Rather than celebrating Salah’s disappointment, Mané was quick to console his fellow forward after scoring the winning spot-kick in the AFCON final in Cameroon.
Elijah Adeyemi
