LONDON Mohamed Salah has reassured Liverpool fans his stunning first season is “just the beginning” of his time at the club despite speculation over interest from Real Madrid.
The Egyptian collected awards in Liverpool on Thursday after being voted player of the season by both the club’s fans and his teammates before boarding a flight to collect the Football Writers’ Association’s award in London.
The 25-year-old has scored 43 goals in all competitions since arriving from Roma last summer, a return that has seen him heavily linked with Spanish giants Real Madrid, who face Liverpool in the Champions League later this month.
But Salah, who needs just one more goal to become the outright record-holder for the most strikes in a 38-match season in the Premier League, appears content with life at the club.
“I’m very happy here, everything is fine,” he said. “Of course I have got ambitions for the future with Liverpool. As you can see we had a great season, now we are in the Champions League final and everyone is excited.
“It is just the start. This is my first year here and it is the same for some other players. It is just the beginning.”
Liverpool cannot focus all of their energies on Real just yet, with the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League still not settled.
A point in their final match, at home to Brighton on Sunday, will be enough to secure a top-four finish, after which all eyes turn to Kiev.
Salah, who was last month crowned Professional Footballers’ Association players’ player of the year, won the writers’ award ahead of Kevin De Bruyne and Harry Kane.
Speaking in London, he said: “I was here four years ago (with Chelsea) and a lot of people were saying he couldn’t play in the Premier League. I left Chelsea but it was always in my mind to come back to make them wrong. So I make them wrong.
“I’m not the same player. I improved a lot in Rome but I can’t say everything is me. The team-mates are maybe different. The coach is tough and they always help me inside and outside the pitch.”
Mohamed Salah promises Liverpool fans: This is ‘just the start’
Mohamed Salah promises Liverpool fans: This is ‘just the start’
- Salah named Football Writers' Player of the Year
- 'It is just the start ... it's just the beginning'
Siniakova ends Andreeva Indian Wells defense in third round
- Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended a frustrated Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense on Monday, rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
When she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, Andreeva threw her racquet in disgust.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games.
The Czech saved a pair of break points in the final game before sealing the match with a shot that struck the net cord and dribbled over as Andreeva could only watch, disappointment sparking another outburst from the Russian as she departed the court.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other early matches, fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula shook off a slow start to beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Pegula, coming off her fourth career WTA 1000 title at Dubai last month, fired 11 aces with just one double fault as she rallied for the win.
“I think today I had to kind of snap myself back and kind of lock in to not let that get away from me,” said Pegula, who said she was in danger of letting negativity and frustration get the better of her.
“I didn’t think I was playing bad. It was just letting a couple chances, couple breaks here and there (get away), maybe a couple shots that I could have been more aggressive on.”
Later on Stadium Court, world number two Iga Swiatek took on Greece’s Maria Sakkari — the woman she beat in the Indian Wells finals in 2022 and 2024.
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who lifted the Indian wells Trophy in 2023, played Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final match of the night.
