Carragher: Salah PL legacy eclipses Ronaldo’s
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has said he believes that Mohamed Salah‘s Premier League legacy eclipses that of Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney with only Arsenal great Thierry Henry above him.
Carragher’s comments come after Salah announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season after nine record-breaking years at the club.
The Egyptian forward has been instrumental in Liverpool’s success in recent years with a Champions League and two Premier League titles among his trophies won on Merseyside.
And Carragher has put Salah second in the all-time “pantheon of overseas attacking players” to grace the Premier League.
“Mohamed Salah’s imminent Liverpool departure marks not just the end of an extraordinary era for the club,” he wrote in his Telegraph column.
“Liverpool’s loss is English football’s loss. In the pantheon of overseas attacking players to have excelled in England, only Thierry Henry eclipses Salah’s output and consistency.
“While many will argue the merits of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, Gianfranco Zola, Dennis Bergkamp or Eric Cantona, none of them produced the same devastating numbers as consistently, season-after-season, as the Egyptian.
“In an all-time Premier League XI, Salah is an automatic inclusion in the front three alongside Henry and Ronaldo.”
Carragher also added that Salah’s influence on Jürgen Klopp’s great Liverpool era is an aspect of his career that cannot be understated, with the 33-year-old instrumental in the change of fortunes at the club when the German took over.
“Whenever the glorious, transformative Jürgen Klopp era is remembered, Salah will forever be synonymous with the success that delivered both Premier League and Champions League glory,” he added.
“If Klopp was the charismatic and visionary stage director, Salah was the inspirational leading man.
“Under Klopp’s guidance, and thanks in large part to Salah’s genius, Liverpool rapidly evolved from a club struggling simply to qualify for the Champions League to one that genuinely believed it had the capability to win the competition every single time they participated.
– Lindop: Salah will get the Liverpool farewell, but he leaves a void to fill
– Liverpool’s ‘greatest’: Mohamed Salah saluted by teammates
– Premier League table
One of the hallmarks of Salah’s time at Liverpool was his ability to avoid injuries, an aspect of his career that Carragher holds in high regard.
“Aside from his prolific goalscoring and pace, there is another, more underrated quality that must always be remembered when discussing Salah’s rightful place among the greats,” he said.
“It is his extraordinary availability. Across nine seasons at the highest level, Salah has made 435 appearances — an average of just over 48 games every single year for his club.
“These are extraordinary numbers given the relentless physical and mental intensity with which he and his team have played for most of that time.
“Nothing impresses me more in the game than world-class footballers who possess that desire never to miss a game.”