Mohamed Salah's Potential Move to Saudi Arabia: Key Conditions Revealed

Mohamed Salah has signalled his willingness to move to Saudi Arabia – but only on his terms – as the fallout from his Liverpool exit explodes into a public row between Dejan Lovren and Jamie Carragher.

The 33-year-old’s departure from Anfield was confirmed weeks ago, ending a nine-year spell that reshaped Liverpool’s modern history and leaving one year of a £400,000‑per‑week deal on the table. It comes after a bruising campaign on and off the pitch for both player and club.

Liverpool staggered to fifth place after a “woeful” season, their performances and results ultimately costing Arne Slot his job. Salah, still dealing with the emotional impact of the tragic passing of teammate Diogo Jota, found himself at the centre of a turbulent year that exposed deep fractures behind the scenes.

According to Lovren, those fractures ran straight through the relationship between Salah and Slot. The former Liverpool defender has claimed that had the Dutchman been dismissed earlier, Salah would not have chosen to walk away this summer. That version of events only sharpens the sense that Liverpool have lost their talisman in a storm that might have been avoided.

What happens next, though, is already taking shape.

Salah’s Saudi stance: three non-negotiables

Saudi outlet Marebpress reports that Salah has “granted approval” to a move to the Saudi Pro League. The door is open. It is not wide open.

The same report states that Salah has already received an offer from one of the league’s clubs, but the package on the table falls short of the deal he was previously offered before renewing with Liverpool. That matters. For a player of his global reach, the numbers must reflect his status.

Previous reporting has indicated that any Saudi move would likely place Salah among the highest-paid athletes in history, with a contract that stretches beyond the pitch into an ambassadorial role promoting football in the country. The financial scale is expected to be enormous.

Yet the money is only part of it. Marebpress outlines three key conditions set by Salah:

• An annual salary and financial benefits that match his standing and marketing power.
• A contract of two or three years to give him stability in the final phase of his career.
• A club with a genuine sporting project, one built to compete for major titles rather than simply make up the numbers.

In other words, Salah is not chasing a final payday at any cost. The project has to be serious, competitive, and worthy of a player who has spent nearly a decade fighting for the biggest trophies in Europe.

No way back – and no quiet goodbye

Liverpool, for their part, have moved on in practical terms. There is no route back for Salah at Anfield. Recruitment plans are already in motion, with Yan Diomande identified as their locked-in, number one target to help fill the void on the right.

Emotionally, though, the club is nowhere near closure.

Plenty of supporters would have preferred Salah to see out his deal until 2027, especially given the levels he sustained over eight or nine seasons. For them, one bad year – in a dysfunctional team – should not have rewritten his legacy or hastened his exit.

That tension has spilled into the public domain, and it is Lovren who has lit the fuse.

Lovren vs Carragher: “It’s disgusting”

Speaking to Winwin, Lovren launched a fierce defence of Salah and a stinging attack on some of the voices who have criticised him, with Jamie Carragher squarely in the crosshairs.

“The way they treated him this season is not harsh. It’s disgusting,” Lovren said. “Why didn’t they talk about him like this for the past eight or nine years? Tell me… OK, one season, and then he’s the target again. There are so many other issues.”

He believes certain pundits have turned Salah into a lightning rod.

“He’s being really heavily criticised. Some pundits do it just to attract attention, maybe because they haven’t succeeded in other areas of their lives, so now they need to perform well… especially Carragher, he says whatever he wants. I always said he should tell him this to his face, say all these things to Mo to his face.

“He’ll never say that. Because I know he never will, because he never said it to me. He’s talked badly about me too, but he never said that to me anyway. You know, he’s just performing on TV and he gets paid for it, so he needs to perform this way.”

Those are not throwaway lines. They are the words of a close friend who feels Salah has been hung out to dry in a season when the problems ran far deeper than one winger’s form.

Lovren did not stop with the pundits.

“It’s just the manager”

Inside Liverpool, Lovren believes the breakdown was personal, not institutional.

“I don’t think it’s the management (that pushed Salah to leave). I think it’s just one person, and I think it’s just the manager. They didn’t have a good relationship. Let’s put it simply,” he said.

“With Klopp, he had a really good relationship. It wasn’t always perfect, but they knew each other very well, let’s say that too, and they trusted each other, they liked each other, and Mo gave everything on the pitch for Klopp, and Klopp gave him that trust. But (with Slot) it was the opposite. It’s that simple, and everyone knows it because when you look at the previous eight or nine seasons, he did really well.”

In Lovren’s eyes, the club failed Salah in the dressing room as well.

“There are other players who should also take responsibility and say, ‘yes, this is my fault’, but you know, some players never came forward.

“There was mismanagement; internally, they didn’t handle it well. They didn’t handle it well. Even if you have some problems, you have to talk about it in the dressing room, and like I said, Mo never felt that support. He was always the front-page headline, ‘Ah, it’s Mohamed Salah, don’t be surprised.’ I mean… it’s a deep-seated issue.”

A giant in limbo

So Liverpool move into a new era without their most reliable source of goals. Salah stands on the brink of a Saudi move that could redefine his financial standing and his role in the global game, but only if his conditions are met.

The chapter at Anfield is closed. The argument over how it ended is only just beginning.