Because of this, Liverpool fans all over the world are watching Salah closely to see what he does next. After Liverpool beat Manchester United 3-0 in September, he said that this was his “last season” there. This made fans crazy, but it seemed like it was just because contract talks weren’t going on at the time.
Reports say they are now, and Salah wants to stay at the club for three more years. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is preparing a world-class pay offer to try to get him to join any of the teams owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
It would be hard for anyone in that position to decide what to do. You could make more money playing football than any other player in history. Should you take the offer? Or should you stay at the club where you became one of the best players of all time and fight for three more years for league and Champions League titles?
Salah has to decide between Saudi Arabia and Liverpool.It looks like Salah doesn’t know what to do either. Before, he put a passage from an Arabic book he was reading on his Instagram story. There is a title for the text that says “Who are the mentally ill?” and the line reads:
“Studies have shown that people make most of their decisions based on feelings rather than logic.” We often decide to do something because we feel good about it. Sometimes we can’t explain why we did it; we just thought it was a good idea at the time. “80% of the choices we make are based on how we feel.” 20% of the choices we make are based on logic.
What does that indicate about Salah’s mindset when it comes to this decision he is having to make? The paragraph suggests that making a decision based on emotional conviction is the wrong thing to do.
Yet you could argue that staying at Liverpool is an emotional decision because of his history here, but also that leaving the glory and sporting success that Liverpool could be set for over the next few years to earn in excess of Cristiano Ronaldo’s reported £167m a year is certainly based on an emotional aspect.
But being tied to a place and a people emotionally isn’t the worst thing in the world. Salah’s already a multi-millionaire, and whilst it would be once-again-lifechaning money, he would fade into relatively obscurity in the Saudi Pro League.
Make the right decision, Mo. You won’t regret it.
