Mohamed Salah is leaving Liverpool after a legendary nine seasons at the club – and Gary McAllister believes a move to the Saudi Pro League could be on the cards. Salah announced on Tuesday night that he will depart Liverpool at the end of the season after an agreement to end his contract was reached.
The 33-year-old arrived at Anfield from Roma in 2017 and has scored 255 goals to make him the club’s third all-time leading goalscorer. Salah has also lifted two Premier League titles along with a Champions League, FA Cup and two Carabao Cups.
Salah has previously been targeted by clubs in Saudi Arabia, with Liverpool turning down a £150million offer from Al-Ittihad in September 2023.
And former Reds midfielder McAllister believes a move to the Saudi Pro League could well be the forward's next destination.
He told Grosvenor Casino: “Yeah, you’d think so. But who knows, maybe he fancies a change of lifestyle somewhere else, like MLS. I don’t know what he’s thinking at all.
“Would it be a financial decision? I’m not sure. I think he’s already on a decent salary. But a lot of the pointers suggest Saudi Arabia. That said, I still think there’s a wee bit left in his legs.
“Obviously, Cristiano Ronaldo was the big one for the Saudi league when he moved there. I think because of where Mo Salah comes from geographically, moving to that region might appeal to him even more.”
"In the Middle East, he is a proper superstar, so that would be a massive boost for the league.”
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the news breaking on Tuesday night, Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, insisted his client’s next move has not been decided yet.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, he said: "We do not know where Mohamed will play next season. This also means that no one else knows."
While it has been widely reported that Liverpool will not receive a fee for Salah, they will remove his wages, which are believed to be worth more than £400,000 a week, off the books.
And Rob Wilson, Professor of Applied Sport Finance at the University Campus of Football Business in London, believes that will help the Reds in the transfer market this summer.
He said: "Extracting any meaningful transfer fee while also removing the highest-earner off their wage bill just wasn’t realistic, so terminating his contract makes financial sense.
"From Liverpool's perspective, the economics are really quite clear, even if, emotionally, particularly for the fans, it probably feels like the end of an era.
"Salah's been one of the most commercially impactful players in the club's modern history but I think we're at a point now where his on-the-pitch contribution, age profile and wage level has really diverged from an optimal position in terms of squad efficiency.
"I think Liverpool really should have cashed in when he was at peak value before providing him with a very lucrative contract and what we're seeing now is an outcome of that big decision, tying him to excessive wages at a time when his physical prowess will naturally diminish.
"From what I'm seeing there will be no transfer fee. It’s a termination of contract. What that means is that they remove one of the highest salary commitments that they've got on their books and from a pure financial modelling standpoint it is a positive outcome.
"It frees up some PSR space and so on, so what you're really doing is recycling capital to free up wages, create that headroom and enable you to reinvest into younger assets with more longer-term resale value.
"Naturally there is of course a commercial trade-off. Salah has been central to Liverpool's global brand, and particularly their digital footprint, and their branding exercise in the Middle East and Africa, so his departure will probably create a short term dip in engagement metrics.
"Things like shirt sales, digital reach and sponsorship activation in those territories which means, when coupled with Liverpool's rather patchy season that they've had in the Premier League, it is likely to damage their market share in those territories, although they are naturally a very historical brand.
"To counteract that, we probably should say that Liverpool's commercial models are much more mature and diversified than many other clubs in the Premier League. They're already less dependent on a single individual than they might have been five years ago.
"The key will not be how quickly they can replace Salah’s output but how quickly they can change the narrative. Football brands are built on storytelling as much as they are on performance."
Mohamed Salah will leave Liverpool at the end of the season and Fanatics has cut the price of this season's kits with 'M. Salah 11' printing.
