Liverpool star Mohamed Salah once allegedly threatened to leave the club due to the Anfield side’s supposed interest in Israeli national Mu’nas Dabbur.
Salah has been in stunning form for the Reds’ this season as he looks to spearhead Arne Slot’s side to a Premier League and Champions League triumph. The Egyptian was once again instrumental as Liverpool put Manchester City to the sword on Sunday with a goal and assist in a comfortable 2-0 win to leave the club nine points clear at the top of the table.
However, Salah’s ongoing contract saga off the pitch is generating as much headlines as his performances on it. The 32-year-old is heading into the last six months of his storied time at Liverpool as an impasse over extending his deal looks to have been reached.
Despite the writing appearing to be on the wall for Liverpool fans, Salah and his agent Ramy Abbas Issa have had a history of making power plays to ensure the forward bags what he wants before signing on the dotted line. Once such play supposedly reared its head in 2018 when Salah allegedly alarmed his club’s hierarchy by warning he could quit if Dabbur was signed.
Salah’s prominence at Liverpool was skyrocketing at the time with the player leading the club to a Champions League final and keeping the Reds in a fierce title battle with City. His new found footing as the club’s standout performer was perhaps best exploited however when he allegedly attempted to dictate the club’s transfer policy.
Salah has experienced a checkered history with Israeli players owed to Israel and Palestine’s fractured relationship. In 2013, when the winger played for FC Basel, he avoided the pre-match handshake against Israeli Premier League outfit Maccabi Tel Aviv by changing his boots at the side of the pitch, Basel however claimed it was a coincidence.
In the second leg in Israel, Salah opted for a unique fist bump rather than the traditional handshake. He was then booed by Maccabi fans in a subsequent game.
Salah also claimed he was forced to play in the game. In an interview from 2014, he said: “The club (Basel) told me if I don’t go I will be suspended and there will be lots of problems. So I went and thank god I scored.”
According to Israel’s official Arabic Twitter account at the time (@IsraelArabic), Salah was considering walking away from Liverpool should Dabbur join. “Mohamed Salah is not the first Egyptian footballer to refuse normalization with Israel,” wrote Palestinian journalist Lina Khattab, via Alarabiya News.
The reference was to former Egypt star Mohamed Abu Trieka, who in 2008 took off his shirt to reveal another that read “In solidarity with Gaza.” Khattab added: “Mohamed Salah threatened to leave Liverpool if Israeli player Mu’nas Dabbur joins the team, not caring about the consequences.”
However, those closest to Salah reportedly said that, as a professional, it’s not his concern who club bosses elect to sign. Yet the reports continued to roll in.
Hagay Hacohen of the Jerusalem Post quoted Israeli media as saying: “Egyptian super-star Mohamed Salah has allegedly threatened to leave Premier League football club Liverpool if Arab-Israeli soccer player Mu’nas Dabbur joins the team.”
In response to the growing interest on the issue, former Egyptian national team head coach Mahmoud Fayez declared that Salah would not in fact leave Liverpool. “Before this becomes a trend, Mohamed Salah is a professional player and is not interested in whether or not Liverpool brings in an Israeli,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
Former Red Bull Salzburg striker Dabbur never did sign for the club. Salah’s commitment to Liverpool was unquestioned however as he went on to win the Champions League and Premier League with the Reds in the next two years.
