Mohamed Salah getting closer to new Liverpool deal: Reports
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Mohamed Salah is the top scorer in the Premier League this season with 27 goals and has netted 243 times in 394 appearances for Liverpool.
PHOTO: AFP
LONDON – Liverpool are making progress on talks over a new contract for Mohamed Salah and the English Premier League leaders are increasingly confident he will stay at Anfield next season, according to reports on April 9.
The 32-year-old Egypt international is out of contract at the end of this season along with Liverpool teammates Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
While Alexander-Arnold has been linked strongly with a free transfer to Real Madrid, van Dijk said after the 3-2 loss to Fulham on April 6 that negotiations were progressing over a much-discussed new deal for the club captain.
It is understood no agreement has yet been struck, but there is optimism Salah and van Dijk will extend their contract for another two years.
The 33-year-old Dutchman joined Liverpool during the 2017-18 January transfer window in a then-club-record £75 million move from Southampton. He was made captain at the start of last season following Jordan Henderson’s departure.
Salah is the top scorer in the Premier League this season with 27 goals, and has netted 243 times in 394 appearances for the Reds since arriving from AS Roma in July 2017.
He won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019 and helped the club end a 30-year English top-flight title drought in 2020, lifting eight trophies in total during his time on Merseyside.
The two-time African Footballer of the Year has been linked with a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia, but has always made it clear his preferred option was to remain at Liverpool. In November, Salah said he was “probably more out than in” at Liverpool before suggesting a deal was “far away” a month later.
The Reds, meanwhile, confirmed on April 10 that they will play in Japan for the first time since the 2005 Fifa Club World Championship, now known as the Fifa Club World Cup.
They will face J1 League side Yokohama F. Marinos on July 30 in a pre-season friendly as part of an Asian tour that will also take them to Hong Kong.
Yokohama, who are managed by Gareth Southgate’s former England assistant Steve Holland, were runners-up in last season’s Asian Champions League when they were coached by former Liverpool player Harry Kewell.
The friendly will be played at Yokohama’s Nissan Stadium, which seats more than 70,000.
On July 26, Liverpool will face AC Milan in the first football match to be played at Hong Kong’s new 50,000-capacity Kai Tak Stadium, where Arsenal will take on Tottenham Hotspur five days later.
The new Premier League season starts on Aug 16. AFP
