Salah’s Liverpool rise met a crushing Kyiv setback

Mohamed Salah’s debut season for Liverpool became a record-breaking statement—after a risky pivot away from a Chelsea bid—until the 2018 Champions League final in Kyiv turned celebration into pain. His shoulder injury, Ramos’ tackle, and Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat

When Mohamed Salah first caught Jurgen Klopp’s eye. it was just three words that followed—“What the f***!”—after the Egyptian played for Basel in a friendly against Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund. By the time Klopp’s recruitment team could even dig into the idea of signing him. Chelsea were already pursuing Salah with the sort of financial muscle that forces decisions to happen fast.

Jose Mourinho’s first attempt to call Salah didn’t even make it through at first. He couldn’t answer because he hadn’t paid the phone bill to Salah’s Egyptian provider. When the connection finally did go through via WiFi, Salah chose Chelsea over Liverpool.

It didn’t work out at Stamford Bridge. Salah made just 19 appearances, scoring two goals, before spending a pair of loans to Fiorentina and Roma. Those 18 unhappy months were enough for domestic rivals to start treating him as a failure in England—despite Serie A goal charts that kept pointing to something different. Liverpool believed the explanation was simpler: Salah was behind Eden Hazard in the pecking order.

Salah’s decisive pivot from “Chelsea reject” to a Liverpool record-breaker wasn’t just luck. Klopp was not even initially aiming at Salah. He wanted Julian Brandt. the Bayer Leverkusen winger. but Brandt didn’t want to move because there was a World Cup at the end of the season and he feared the change might disrupt his form and fitness.

Liverpool then moved to Salah, guided by data and an advantage they believed they could exploit from Roma’s financial situation. Roma’s chief Monchi—later of Aston Villa—would later admit Liverpool “got him on the cheap”, even at £43million.

The early weeks of that debut season left no room for doubt. Salah scored six goals in his first 10 games, then followed with three braces in five matches during October. He finished with 44 goals across all competitions—32 in the Premier League. a record for a 38-game campaign—and added 16 assists in 52 appearances. In league terms, those numbers translated to 1.15 goal involvements per game.

But the story of that season wasn’t perfect. Liverpool finished fourth in the league. 25 points behind Manchester City. the record-breaking “Centurions” side and the first of Pep Guardiola’s Premier League titles. City had also thrashed Liverpool 5-0 early in Klopp’s first season with Salah. a result that suggested the Reds were still learning how to be truly elite.

Even so, Salah changed the atmosphere around the team. Klopp’s Liverpool started to carry that feeling of formidability, the sense they could win anything. And with Salah in it, players and fans began dreaming again after a disappointing decade.

Salah’s arrival didn’t just create moments of brilliance—it reshaped how Liverpool attacked. He and Sadio Mane, signed for a similar fee from Southampton a year earlier, flew down the wings. Roberto Firmino—brought in as a legacy of Brendan Rodgers’ final transfer window—rounded out the front line.

Klopp spoke about it in terms of instinct and momentum. He said Salah took each sprint like “the 100m final in the Olympic Games. ” and that the team adapted to their strengths. Klopp added that no one was telling Salah “Mo. but you have to… At the moment. nobody is saying anything to Salah other than ‘carry on.’” He also stressed Liverpool would not treat him as someone who could simply coast: Salah didn’t want that. Klopp said. He was in the moment of his career, but he knew there was “a lot for him to come.”.

Liverpool’s recruitment team, led by Michael Edwards, had still been surprised after surveying Salah on undercover scouting missions before signing him. Fans were soon just as stunned. Salah’s name spread rapidly through Liverpool, with shirt sales booming across the world.

The impact reached beyond football. Mumin Khan. the head of England’s first Mosque. said Salah changed negative perceptions of the Muslim community in the area. A study by Stanford University in 2019 found that since Salah arrived. there was a 19 per cent decrease in hate crimes in Merseyside and Islamophobic social media posts by fans had halved.

Salah’s Muslim identity sat visibly inside the team that season. He was one of four Muslims in the Liverpool squad alongside Mane, Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri. His goal celebrations included performing sujood—an Islamic act of prostration to God, bowing with his face to the turf.

Ismael Mahmoud, an expert on Salah and a journalist, framed it as closeness as much as performance. He explained that Salah was “very close to us” and not from a rich family. saying he “just” came from a middle-class background. Mahmoud added that Egyptian press interest about Salah grew exponentially after he joined Liverpool. because the club already had fans in Egypt dating back to the 1980s. What Salah did, Mahmoud said, felt like “a dream every Egyptian lived.”.

Europe then demanded the final leap. After beating City 5-1 on aggregate in the quarter-final, Salah and his team overcame Roma in the last four, winning a 7-6 thriller to set up a Champions League semi-climactic clash with Real Madrid.

Sergio Ramos stirred the air in the build-up. Asked how good Salah was. Ramos said comparing Salah to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi was something “you can’t do. ” adding that they were “in another orbit.” Ramos described Salah as a top player with “a great chance” to show what he could over the next few years. “as Ronaldo and Messi have done — but the day after tomorrow!”.

Liverpool’s response came from inside the squad. James Milner, then an experienced leader, had the players lift Salah above their heads when he was named PFA player of the year. Milner joked, “You have been carrying us all season,” turning the moment into something Salah could feel.

The 2018 Champions League final was meant to crown everything. Liverpool were returning to a final for the first time since 2007, with Klopp’s team growing into something fearless—full-backs flying, energy everywhere, and the attacking trident of Salah, Firmino and Mane.

By 25 minutes, it turned into heartbreak.

Salah was in tears after being yanked to the floor by Sergio Ramos and spraining the ligaments in his left shoulder. Even the European Judo Association commented that Ramos’ grab and roll would not be accepted in their sport. Liverpool’s night unraveled further: Loris Karius. later revealed to have been concussed. made two shocking errors. and Real’s Gareth Bale scored an overhead kick—described as one of the best goals in Champions League history—coming off the bench.

Real Madrid won 3-1 in Kyiv, and the image that followed was sharp and immediate: Ramos dragging Salah to the turf, Salah left in agony and unable to continue.

Back in Liverpool and across fan communities, the reaction was fierce. Fans demanded the final be replayed and Ramos be tried properly after escaping punishment. In Egypt, an Egyptian lawyer, Bassem Wahba, launched a lawsuit seeking damages of £873m. Wahba said Ramos had “inflicted physical and psychological harm” upon the country of Egypt.

In Jakarta. the Indonesian capital and a predominantly Muslim city. a demonstration gathered outside the Spanish embassy. showing Salah’s reverence within the Muslim world and the idea that supporters worldwide would “go into battle for him.” Mahmoud described Ramos as the most hated person in Egypt “at that time. ” saying people discussed the injury for days—some even crying because Salah was at risk of missing the World Cup.

Salah went to a local hospital where shoulder pain was so intense he couldn’t take off his shirt. When he rejoined his teammates, Real’s trophy was already lifted and Liverpool’s dream was over.

Then there was the human work of dealing with the aftermath inside a matchday body. Ruben Pons, Liverpool’s then physiotherapist (now working in Saudi Arabia), described his own attempt to keep Salah calm. He told Salah that nothing could be done. that he shouldn’t worry too much. and that the focus had to shift to finding solutions rather than regretting what had happened.

Pons said Liverpool were watching the match while they checked developments on social networks, with security telling them the result. When they returned, the game was over. Pons added that the whole team had changed and were ready to ride the team bus—and that he and the staff had to help Salah change because he “could not” do it alone.

The shoulder injury carried straight into Salah’s national story, too. Helped Egypt qualify for the 2018 World Cup—Egypt’s first in 28 years—Salah’s Kyiv injury still ruined the World Cup build-up. He missed Egypt’s opening match, a late 1-0 defeat by Uruguay. Even when he returned, Egypt couldn’t get going, losing all three group matches in Russia.

So the debut season’s achievements—Premier League Golden Boot. PFA Player of the Year. and FWA Player of the Year—ended in a very different emotional register. A glittering first year at Liverpool delivered individual triumph but also trophy disappointment and a World Cup exit that looked like an unfinished chapter.

Still, Salah had been down before.

He had been rejected by Zamalek, deemed a failure at Chelsea, and twice he’d shown he could come back. After that record-breaking debut season closed without a trophy and with a Ballon d’Or snub—he finished sixth—Salah knew he had to go again. And that is where the next part of his story begins.

Mohamed Salah Liverpool Jose Mourinho Chelsea Jurgen Klopp Roma Monchi Michael Edwards PFA Player of the Year FWA Player of the Year Champions League final 2018 Sergio Ramos Loris Karius Gareth Bale Egypt World Cup 2018