Typically, at 32 years of age, players tend to see a decline in their performances as they begin to wind down their careers. However, Mohamed Salah is re-writing the script.
During Liverpool‘s 5-0 win against West Ham, the Egyptian picked up a goal and two assists to take his Premier League goal contribution tally up to 30 before January.
It’s a simply staggering achievement for the Reds winger, who is linked with a potential move away in the summer amid an ongoing contract dispute with the club.
However, now, it seems ludicrous that Liverpool would let Salah walk away for free, given how impressive his 2024-25 campaign has been to date.
In fact, the Egyptian has been so good that he’s broken the record for the best minute-to-goal-contribution ratio of any Premier League player in history.
With 17 goals and 13 assists from 18 matches – 1,586 minutes – Salah boasts a staggering record of one contribution every 53 minutes this season.
Mohamed Salah has reached 30 Premier League goal contributions before the new year
The Egyptian scored his 17th goal of the campaign during a 5-0 win over West Ham on Sunday
In terms of the current season, Salah stands alone at the top of the leaderboard for goal contributions – with Chelsea’s Cole Palmer sitting second with 18.
In a look to the all-time records, Salah’s impressive return is the best ever for players who have played more than 1000 minutes in a league season.
According to The Athletic, after Salah is Arsenal star Gabriel Jesus who, during his time at Man City, impressively contributed to a goal every 59 minutes in 2016-17.
However, the stat is slightly less eye catching when realising that Jesus contributed just 11 goals – albeit from 10 appearances – compared to Salah’s 30.
Similarly, in third place on the all-time list is former Everton striker Kevin Campbell who provided nine goals and two assists from eight Premier League outings in 1998-99.
Moving to fourth in the all-time list and we finally have another current player in Man City superstar Erling Haaland and his record-breaking debut year at the club.
After joining City in the summer of 2022, the Norwegian went on to break the scoring record by producing a monumental 36-goal return – along with eight assists.
However, even his record-breaking campaign saw a goal contribution every 63.1 minutes – ten minutes slower than Salah thus far.
Erling Haaland broke the scoring record after a monumental 36-goal return in his debut season
Meanwhile, Gabriel Jesus produced an impressive goalscoring return back in his City days
Even Harry Kane, second in the all-time scoring charts, cannot compete with Salah’s returns
Former Man United star Ole Gunnar Solskjaer creeps onto the list in fifth place after providing 12 goals and one assist for the Red Devils in the 1998-99 season.
Meanwhile, former Man City star Sergio Aguero rounds off the top six after his impressive campaign in 2013-14 which saw him return 17 goals and six assists.
Elsewhere on the list are the likes of Luis Suarez and Harry Kane, who also lit up the Premier League in seasons gone by.
Uruguayan star Suarez had a particularly impressive return during the 2013-14 season – where he scored 31 and provided another 13 assists.
Meanwhile Kane’s 2016-17 campaign – which saw him score 29 goals and record seven assists – also makes the list.
However, with goal contributions every 68.9 minutes and 70.3 minutes respectively, neither of them come close to challenging Salah.
In fact, the Egyptian’s numbers were made even more impressive after it was revealed that he took the fewest matches ever to reach 30 goal involvements.
The Liverpool star managed to do so in just 18 matches, one better than Suarez, four better than Haaland and a staggering seven better than Alan Shearer in 1994-95.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer provided 12 goals and one assist for Man United in the 1998-99 season
In third place on the all-time list is former Everton striker Kevin Campbell
Uruguayan star Suarez had a particularly impressive return during the 2013-14 season – where he scored 31 and provided another 13 assists
| Player | Season | Minutes | G/A | Mins per G/A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohamed Salah | 2024-25 | 1582 | 30 | 52.7 |
| Gabriel Jesus | 2016-17 | 650 | 11 | 59.1 |
| Kevin Campbell | 1998-99 | 692 | 11 | 62.9 |
| Erling Haaland | 2022-23 | 2776 | 44 | 63.1 |
| Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | 1998-99 | 853 | 13 | 65.6 |
| Sergio Aguero | 2013-14 | 1539 | 23 | 66.9 |
After their 5-0 victory over West Ham, Liverpool boss Arne Slot took a moment to praise the ‘extraordinary’ winger.
Slot said: ‘Mo and the word extraordinary is something I’ve heard a lot in the last six months — he truly deserves this.
‘We know what a player he is and we know what he’s able to do. But apart from that, he works really hard for the team also when the other team has the ball and yeah, we can only hope that he can keep bringing these performances in.
‘But I would like to add that if he scores, there’s also a lead up to him scoring. So there are also other players that bring him in these positions, but if you bring Mo in these positions, he’s extraordinary. Definitely.’
It would be fair to say Salah has never looked better, and he now has the chance to break even more records in the second half of the season after an extraordinary end to 2024.
