As Mohamed Salah continues his incredible form, writer Alex Keble assesses how the Egyptian compares with the world's best players and the Premier League's greatest all-time stars.
Salah the phenomenon
Ever since his explosive debut season at Liverpool in 2017/18, when he burst onto the scene with a then-record 32 Premier League goals, we’ve known Mohamed Salah is a phenomenon.
Still, at the time there was an assumption we’d witnessed his peak; that a player with such a unique style – chaotic, straight-lined running and no-frills finishing – must simply be enjoying a freak year.
But by the end of 2018/19, Salah was a UEFA Champions League winner - and a bona fide star.
In 2019/20, he was Liverpool's top scorer in a title-winning season, and by the end of 2021/22, he was in the Premier League’s 100 Club, having surpassed a century of goals in the top flight.
Two-and-a-half years later, as we draw a close on 2024, Salah is charging down on new single-season records, a second Premier League title, a fourth Golden Boot and maybe even a Ballon d’Or.
Salah is a future "Hall of Famer" - a Premier League legend, one of the greatest footballers ever to play in England, and, surely, one of the best in the world.
Salah’s goals and assists record is world-beating
Salah has gone to a whole new level in 2024 and the headline figures are Lionel Messi-level good.
Across the calendar year, he has more combined goals (29) and assists (23) in all competitions than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues.
Most goals and assists in all competitions 2024*
| Player | P | G | A | G+A | Mins/G+A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohamed Salah | 44 | 29 | 23 | 52 | 64 |
| Harry Kane | 43 | 39 | 11 | 50 | 73 |
| Kylian Mbappe | 50 | 37 | 12 | 49 | 81 |
| Jonathan David | 50 | 36 | 11 | 47 | 86 |
| Vinicius Junior | 47 | 32 | 14 | 46 | 83 |
*Players from clubs in Premier League, LaLiga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1
Salah isn’t just outperforming all other contenders for the status of world’s best player. He’s beating them by a distance, scoring or assisting at a rate of once per 64 minutes, far more frequently than Kane (73), Vinicius Junior (81) and Kylian Mbappe (83).
Focusing on 2024/25, Salah’s 1.7 Premier League goal involvements per 90 is by far his best return in a Liverpool shirt. In fact, at almost the halfway point, he has already beaten his total for the whole of last season.
Salah's last five seasons at Liverpool
| Season | Goals and assists (PL) | Goals and assists per 90 |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 27 | 0.8 |
| 2021/22 | 36 | 1.2 |
| 2022/23 | 31 | 0.9 |
| 2023/24 | 28 | 1.0 |
| 2024/25 | 30 | 1.7 |
Compared to other players in Europe’s top five leagues, Salah’s total of 30 goal involvements is a stunning 50 per cent more than the next best tally, Kane's 20.
Most goals and assists Europe's top five leagues
| 2024/25 | Apps | Goals | Assists | Goals + assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salah | 18 | 17 | 13 | 30 |
| Kane | 13 | 14 | 6 | 20 |
| Marmoush | 15 | 13 | 7 | 20 |
| Lewandowski | 18 | 16 | 2 | 18 |
| Palmer | 18 | 12 | 6 | 18 |
That’s already a pretty good case for Salah being the world’s best player this season.
But it gets even stronger when we break down those goal involvements. His goals are accelerating to a new peak, and his assists show a newfound creativity for Salah at the age of 32.
Salah could smash Premier League goalscoring records
Seventeen goals in 18 matches. That’s 0.97 goals per 90, just a fraction below the 0.99 per 90 in Salah’s debut season of 2017/18, when he scored 32 goals, a then-record for most goals in a 38-match Premier League campaign.
Nobody expected Salah to repeat those numbers seven years on, yet here we are, and on track to match Erling Haaland’s record of 36 set two years ago.
The European records may not be broken (Messi’s 50 LaLiga goals in 2011/12 is surely untouchable) but at the current rate, Salah has the chance to set the single-season Premier League record – and move up to fourth in the all-time top goalscorers' list.
Currently ranked eighth on 174 goals, if Salah continues to score at a rate of 0.97 goals per 90 minutes he will end the 2024/25 campaign on 193, moving him above Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Sergio Aguero, and Andrew Cole.
PL all-time top scorer projection for May 2025
| Player | Goals |
|---|---|
| Shearer | 260 |
| Kane | 213 |
| Rooney | 208 |
| Salah | 193 |
| Cole | 187 |
That would leave Salah needing 68 more goals to overtake Alan Shearer. Or to put it another way, two more 34-goal seasons at Liverpool.
One more contract extension could do it.
If that sounds far-fetched, but consider how often Salah’s goalscoring has defied expectations - and consider the most likely explanation for his recent surge: the wisdom that comes with age, bringing extra coolness in front of goal.
His shots-on-target rate is at an all-time-high of 50 per cent this season. Every time he shoots, he seems to score.
And every time he gets the ball, no matter where on the pitch, you sense something special is about to happen.
Salah’s creativity a surprising late-career addition
It's a relatively new feeling with Salah, who used to mostly come alive inside the penalty area.
But this season, Salah’s immaculate in-swinging crosses have become a predominant feature, as have his now-trademark outside-of-the-boot through-balls from the right.
As a result, Salah has more assists (13) this season than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues.
And although he has always quietly racked up assists – recently moving 10th in the all-time Premier League list, above even David Beckham – his creativity and consistency have gone up a peg.
Most Premier League assists
| Player | Assists |
|---|---|
| Ryan Giggs | 162 |
| Kevin De Bruyne | 114 |
| Cesc Fabregas | 111 |
| Wayne Rooney | 103 |
| Frank Lampard | 102 |
| Dennis Bergkamp | 94 |
| David Silva | 93 |
| Steven Gerrard | 92 |
| James Milner | 89 |
| Mohamed Salah | 82 |
This season, Salah has already matched his personal-best tally of Premier League assists (13 in 2021/22) and – again, almost implausibly – is on track to hit 27 this season, which would obliterate the single-season assist record of 20, held jointly by Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.
To be the top goalscorer in Europe, and one of the greatest ever in the Premier League, is enough to put Salah in the conversation for best player in the world.
But to also be the most creative player in Europe surely seals it for Salah, the only player in Europe’s big five leagues who is on track to top both the goals and assists charts in his league.
That has only been done four times before in the Premier League, by Cole (93/94), Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (98/99), Kane (20/21), and Salah himself (21/22).
Nobody has ever done it twice.
Salah up there with the best ever
The deeper you go into the numbers the more startling they become.
Salah’s current rate of 1.7 goals and assists per 90 is the highest in Premier League history, with Haaland’s 2022/23 season (1.43 per 90) ranked second.
The Egyptian is on course to reach 64 goal involvements in a single Premier League season, which would smash the current record held jointly by Shearer and Cole (47).
And Salah has already broken the single-season Premier League records for the fastest time to reach 30 goal involvements (18 games) and for the most matches in which a player has both scored and assisted (eight).
More records will no doubt fall.
If Salah keeps this up, he’ll provide us with the best individual season in Premier League history – and become arguably the greatest player the competition has ever seen.
As for world-football history, Salah’s rate of 1.7 goals and assists per 90 isn’t too far off the peak years for Messi (1.94 in 2012/13) or Cristiano Ronaldo (1.86 in 2014/15).
That’s a debate for another day, but as for the state of play as we enter 2025, there’s more than enough evidence to reach a conclusion.
Right now, Salah is the best footballer on the planet.
