Free-agent Salah opens door to Premier League return as Liverpool exit is confirmed

Mohamed Salah has left Liverpool a year ahead of schedule, with the club confirming an agreement to terminate his contract early, making the 34-year-old a free agent from Wednesday. The Egyptian forward departs Anfield having scored 257 goals in all competitions across nine seasons, during which he helped the club win two Premier League titles and the Champions League.

Salah’s final campaign at the club was clouded by a public falling-out with manager Arne Slot, who has since been replaced by former Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola. The circumstances of his exit have done little to dim the scale of his contribution — he remains one of the most decorated players in Liverpool’s modern history and, at his peak, the highest-paid player the club had ever employed, earning more than £350,000 a week after signing a contract extension in 2022.

With no destination yet announced, speculation over his next move continues. A lucrative switch to the Saudi Pro League is widely considered the frontrunner, though Salah is currently representing Egypt at the FIFA World Cup in North America, leaving his future unresolved for now.

That uncertainty has revived talk of a sensational return to the Premier League — and specifically to Chelsea, the club where his career in England began. Chelsea legend Didier Drogba publicly called for such a move back in 2021, during Salah’s previous contract stand-off with Liverpool.

“If I am selfish, I will tell Salah to leave Liverpool and return to Chelsea,” Drogba said at the time. “Any other team would perform better because he understands what he is doing, is good at scoring and creating goals, and only needs the confidence of the coach. Wherever he goes, I will be one of his fans.”

Salah first arrived at Stamford Bridge from Swiss club Basel in January 2014 in a deal worth around £11 million, but his time in west London never gained traction. He made just 13 Premier League appearances for Chelsea before loan spells at Fiorentina and Roma, with the Italian club eventually signing him permanently in 2016. Liverpool then paid £34 million to bring him to Merseyside a year later — a fee that now looks like one of the great bargains in Premier League history.

Whether Salah’s next chapter is written in Saudi Arabia, back in England, or elsewhere remains to be seen. For now, one of the Premier League era’s most prolific forwards is available on a free transfer.