Al-Ittihad offers Liverpool a world-record fee for Mohamed Salah: report | sports news
The Sun newspaper reported that officials from the Saudi club are in the United Kingdom to make an offer of $270 million for the Egyptian star.
Al-Ittihad, the champions of the Saudi Professional League, is making a new attempt to sign Liverpool star Mohamed Salah by making a world-record bid of £215m ($270m), according to The Sun.
The British newspaper, which did not mention any sources in its report on Monday, said that federation officials had traveled to the United Kingdom in their latest attempt to sign the 31-year-old Egyptian international before the Saudi transfer window closed on Thursday.
The Sun reports that Salah, the world’s leading Arab footballer, has been offered a record salary in the Saudi Professional League of £2.45m per week.
It also stated that Salah was also offered a large percentage of shirt sales, a £55,000 winning bonus, and ambassadorial roles with at least three major Saudi companies throughout the duration of his contract.
Liverpool did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on the report.
Last week, the Merseyside club rejected an offer of $189.6m for Salah from the Saudi club, which is partly owned by the country’s Public Investment Fund.
After Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday, in which Salah scored, Reds coach Jurgen Klopp said the club would not sell Salah at any price.
Liverpool full-back Andy Robertson also insisted the team had “no concerns” about Salah’s departure.
He said, “For us, Mohamed Salah is a player in Liverpool, and we believe that this will be the case for the foreseeable future.”
Salah, who has two years remaining on the contract he signed last year, has scored 188 goals in 309 games with Liverpool since joining the club in June 2017.
The Etihad could make another offer for Salah in the January transfer window if they are unsuccessful in enticing Liverpool to sell the striker this week.
Sport has been a key part of oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s efforts to rebrand it as a global business and tourism destination under the Vision 2030 reform agenda of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also chairman of the Public Investment Fund.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has made significant investments in recent years in the fields of golf, Formula 1 and football, as Saudi clubs have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months to sign top footballers such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.
In June, it was announced that the Public Investment Fund would take over the management of four major local football clubs: Al-Nasr and Al-Hilal, based in Riyadh, and Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahly, based in Jeddah.
But the flurry of deals and investments has also prompted criticism that the Gulf kingdom’s spending amounts to an attempt to divert focus from its dismal human rights record.
