Will Real Madrid look to sign Mohamed Salah in the Summer?

After Mohamed Salah’s incredible debut season at Liverpool, he was bound to attract the interest of the European elite. Rumours suggest that Real Madrid have eyed up the Egyptian winger as their next Galactico, and may make a sensational swoop for the speedy star in the summer transfer window.

According to the Express, the Reds winger has already issued his transfer demands to the Spanish giants. The English paper claims that the former Chelsea man has said that he would be willing to ply his trade at the Santiago Bernabeu, but only for a salary of around £12 million-per-year. This is likely to enrage the club’s regulars, who would be upset to see a new player on the books earning massive amounts more than them. The wage demands would put Salah on a par with Cristiano Ronaldo, who earns around £250,000 per week, and the Portuguese talisman has warned the Egyptian to lower his asking price if he is serious about a move.

Zinedine Zidane may be eying up Salah as a potential long-term replacement for Ronaldo, as the Liverpool man can operate in the same areas as the 2017-18 Champions League top goalscorer. With Ronaldo’s contract expiring in 2021, the top executives at Real may be tempted to monitor Salah for another season or so before making a swoop for the player. The risk with that would be that if the 25-year-old continues to perform at such a high level, his transfer fee would skyrocket further. As it stands, though, it looks unlikely that Salah will move in the summer – bookies have placed him at 9/1 in the La Liga betting to leave Liverpool for Los Blancos.

Liverpool signed Salah for just over £30 million in the summer, and the player is now surely worth three times that amount after his stellar campaign at Anfield. In the Premier League, the pacey trickster has scored a goal every 92 minutes, and quickly joined an elite club of stars who have bagged over 30 goals in a top-flight campaign. The only other players to have achieved this feat are Alan Shearer in 1994-95 and 1995-96, Kevin Phillips in 1999-2000, Thierry Henry in 2003-04, Ronaldo in 2007-08, Robin Van Persie in 2011-12, and Luis Suarez in 2013-14.

There is no way that Liverpool will want their star man to go, and Jürgen Klopp will be hoping that the Egyptian shines on Merseyside for many years to come. The 2017-18 campaign marks the German’s most successful one yet while in the hot seat at Anfield, and the former Borussia Dortmund boss will be looking to build on that next term.

The problem for Klopp is, when Real Madrid want someone, they nearly always get their man. And just as they had to admit defeat when Barcelona came knocking for Philippe Coutinho, if Salah’s head is turned by the Galacticos, there won’t be much that Liverpool can do.