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The records keep tumbling for Mohamed Salah, with the Liverpool talisman celebrating yet another milestone after guiding his country to next year’s World Cup.
The 33-year-old scored twice as Egypt beat Djibouti 3-0 on Wednesday to secure its qualification at next year’s tournament. The Pharaohs become just the third African side to book their place at the World Cup so far, having done so with a game to spare.
It proved to be something of a feisty affair against Djibouti, with tempers threatening to boil over for Salah as he shoved one of his opponents at one point, but the Reds winger can be satisfied in the knowledge that he will take his place among the world’s elite at next year’s tournament now.
And Salah broke yet another record in sending his country to the World Cup. His brace means he is now the all-time top scorer in African World Cup qualifying, as confirmed by the continent’s governing body CAF.
Having scored 20 goals in just 29 matches, Salah overtakes Samuel Eto’o and Didier Drogba, both of whom scored 18 goals for Cameroon and Ivory Coast respectively.
It’s only the second time Egypt has qualified for the World Cup since 1990, with Salah and his teammates looking to improve upon their group stage exit following their last showing in 2018.
Having secured their place at next year’s tournament, Salah posted a picture of himself celebrating with his teammates in the locker room following Wednesday’s win, with the Liverpool star simply captioning the image with a love heart emoji.
His country’s success will come as a welcome distraction after what has been a tricky start to the season with Liverpool. Heading into the international break, the Reds lost three consecutive games across all competitions as they fell behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
Salah has seen his own place in the side questioned recently, with Arne Slot having dropped him to the bench for the Champions League game against Galatasaray last week, although the Liverpool boss insisted that decision came down to his side’s hectic schedule.
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Nevertheless, Salah himself has admitted he is still trying to find a connection with some of his new teammates at Anfield, with Slot offering his own theory on his winger’s relatively slow start to the season.
"Mo is a part of this and you can see this in the second half of last season and the first part of this season. But now you are focused on Mo, the next time you are focused on Florian [Wirtz], then you are focused on Cody [Gakpo]...
"What I'm trying to say is that we don't score as many open play goals as we did first part of last season and this is something we work on very hard. The more we play under the new set-up, the better it will go. But we still struggle a bit to find enough goals from open play in the second half of last season and the first part of this season."
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