Mohammed Salah posted the following in its entirety on Instagram. “Mohammed, I’m beginning to worry that we won’t be able to reach a new contract agreement; their latest offer is still very far from what we want.”
Mohamed Salah, one of the top soccer players in the world, and Ramy Abbas Issa, whose company represented Salah, were speaking on the phone in June 2022. Abbas gave him an update on the ongoing negotiations between Salah and top English Premier League team Liverpool FC regarding a new playing deal. After a fantastic season with Liverpool in which he was named the league’s top scorer as well as the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Players’ Player of the Year, Abbas was in Dubai while Salah was on a brief holiday in his native Egypt.
Salah had previously excelled for Liverpool in each of his five seasons with the team, winning the English league’s top scorer award three times, and contributing significantly to his team’s victories in both the domestic league championship and the most prestigious European competition, the UEFA Champions League. This season was no exception for Salah. Along the way, Salah had established himself as a sports legend in the Arab world as well as a celebrity in Europe and Egypt.
Abbas had worked with Salah during his tenure at Liverpool as well as during Salah’s earlier stops at Italian clubs AFC Fiorentina and AS Roma, primarily in the background. Abbas preferred to be referred to as a “lawyer and advisor,” as he put it, rather than as an agent. He was a Colombian who was proficient in Arabic and had grown up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Along with managing Salah’s rich portfolio of endorsements, he oversaw the player’s club contract negotiations. Salah stated, “We are partners, and I know he will always act in my best interests.”
The two men’s alliance now confronted what may have been its largest obstacle. This was the moment to try to negotiate a large contract from his present club because Salah’s Liverpool contract was set to expire in the summer of 2023 (at which point he could join another team on a free transfer). But as Soresiar’s contract was being renegotiated, he was forced to consider the idea that his long-term future might lie with a different team.
Salah added, “I want to stay with Liverpool, but the team needs to demonstrate that they want me to stay as well. Salah and Abbas were considering how to restart the contract renewal negotiations because they weren’t quite ready to give up on it yet. Was it proper for Abbas and Salah to keep pressing Liverpool for a bigger offer, despite the fact that Salah, who would be 30 in a few days, was already among the highest-paid athletes in the world? Was it wise for Abbas and Salah to consider Liverpool’s demand for a larger share of performance-related income, and what exactly was the ideal balance between fixed and variable compensation? And in an effort to break the impasse, should Abbas and Salah bring up his image rights? Salah sat down for what he anticipated to be a protracted conversation with Abbas because the two needed to discuss a lot of things before putting together a counteroffer.
https://twitter.com/AnythingLFC_/status/1706041262409760897?t=unB-viodSyRG5qRHET48lQ&s=19
