Liverpool star striker Mohamed Salah had a difficult time playing for Chelsea under José Mourinho.
Before revealing all his talent in the Liverpool jersey, Mohamed Salah had already had a first experience in the Premier League on the side of Chelsea. Hired by the Blues in 2014, the Egyptian international had however failed to convince the coach at the time, a certain José Mourinho. A few years later, it was John Obi Mikel, Salah’s former teammate in London, who revealed a little more about the difficult relationship between the two men.
In an interview given to Dubai Eye, the Nigerian thus recounted the particularly complicated moments experienced by Mohamed Salah, evoking a specific example during a meeting. ” I think he was having a bad game and Mourinho clearly came into him. He totally knocked him out. Obi Mikel then admitted that at the time, he never imagined that Salah could become the player he is today.
“He knocked him out first”
And to continue his anecdote. ” He was in tears and what happened was that Mourinho didn’t leave him on the pitch for the second half. He replaced him. He could have just pulled it out and told him ‘you’re not playing well, come on, sit down, you’re not going back on the pitch’. But he knocked it out first and then he replaced it. “An episode that will inevitably have marked a Mohamed Salah who then chained the loans (to Fiorentina, then to AS Roma).
Sold definitively to the Roman club in the summer of 2016, the unfortunate finalist of the last African Cup of Nations broke free and was finally able to show his full potential. A year later, he was transferred to Liverpool almost three times the price Rome had paid to afford him. An investment that the Reds have not regretted.
