When the parting comes, the stats, considerable though they are, will not define him. The mountain of goals, only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt have scored more than the 255 and counting, will not be the entirety of his legend. No, what Liverpool fans will remember most when he is gone is how Mo Salah made them feel, up there with Kenny Dalglish in the hearts of the Scouse diaspora.
The sense of Salah was perhaps most keenly felt by those attending a celebration of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool Olympia ahead of his final game at Anfield two years ago. Organised by fan group BOSS, the old Victorian auditorium served as a temple thronged by Liverpool worshippers 24 hours before the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Leading the communion was Jamie Webster, a kind of Scouse minstrel who sets his love of Liverpool to music with a string of terrace ballads that capture the essence of the fan experience. Of the many songs sung that day none met with the greater rapture than Webster’s ode to Salah, which to this observer felt like a moment of deep spiritual significance.
As he thrummed the opening chords, the dance floor erupted. “Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Mo Salah! Running down the wing. Mo Salah la-la-la la-ahh, the Egyptian king!”
It struck me then how football makes cultural barriers disappear. Here was an Islamic totem at the heart of a community gathering, embraced without a thought to his ethnicity or faith. He was just Mo, and he was there for everyone.
The Egyptian is one of the most talented players to have featured in the Premier League (Photo: Getty)What a wonderful world it is with Salah on the dance floor, the ball glued to his feet, the goal at his mercy, the perfect antidote to Donald Trump bombing the shit out of Iran and the Revolutionary Guard brutalising their own people.
Sport in general, and football in particular as its most popular manifestation, is one of the highest forms of human expression since it requires opponents to come together in an attitude of acceptance and respect.
Self-evidently you cannot play it in a war zone, a fact rammed home during the First World War when, in an act of heartrending spontaneity, hostilities ceased on Christmas Day 1914, allowing British and German soldiers to exchange symbolic gifts and engage in a series of kick-abouts.
Sport’s superpower is its civilising quality, requiring a sense of togetherness and rules-based order to flourish. Yes it is partisan at heart but not at the expense of decency and fair play. Well, in most cases. And at elite level, the emotional connection with football clubs remains one of the great community endeavours.
Salah engenders universal acclaim not because of his brilliance alone but for the spirit in which he plays the game, without malice or prejudice, always smiling, always trying. Perhaps most significantly of all, there is the feeling that he is representing the people of Liverpool, never himself. He is, in this regard, the anti-Cristiano, and as a result so easy to love.
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Pete Hall: Where Mo Salah will go after Liverpool exit – with two likely destinations Mark Douglas: Everton plot £100m summer war chest as Moyes targets three key transfersTar me with a romantic brush, but before we are English, Egyptian, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or any other cultural identifier, we are human beings. The simple joy of communing with one who in other settings might easily have manifested as “other”, reminds us of our commonality.
In the epoch of Trump and his hateful factions we have never needed this message more. Once again this sentiment is best captured in song, another epic paean to Salah set this time to the tune of “Good Enough” by Dodgy.
“If he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me. If he scores another few, then I’ll be Muslim too.
“If he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me. Sitting in the mosque, that’s where I wanna be!
“Mo Salah la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la-la-la.”
Farewell then, Mo. Less an Egyptian king, more a pharaoh of the people, for the people.
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