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Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané are looking to help Liverpool end its season with a UEFA Champions League title, but at this time next season, both will be out of contract. Understandably, there’s a high level of curiosity about whether Saturday’s final vs. Real Madrid will be their last match with the club.
The two stars addressed their futures in the lead-in to the title match in Paris on Wednesday, with Salah confirming he’ll at the very least be back to run out his contract, while Mané’s immediate plan has a bit less clarity—for now.
“I am just focused on the team and don’t want to talk about my contract,” Salah said. “But I am staying next season for sure, that’s for sure.
“In my mind, I don’t focus about the contract at the moment. I don’t want to be selfish. I said two months ago, it’s all about the team now. It’s a really important week for us, so I am just focused on the team. I want to win the Champions League again.”
Salah and the club have been engaged in talks for months, with manager Jürgen Klopp saying a couple of months ago that there is no worry and that the club has offered what it can to the Egyptian star, who will turn 30 in June.
“Mo definitely expects this club to be ambitious,” Klopp said at the time. “We were in the last few years and we are. … We cannot do much more. That’s how it is. I don’t think it’s about that. I think, meanwhile, it’s Mo’s decision. The club did what the club can do. There is nothing bad to say about it. It is all fine from my point of view.
“Nothing happened further, no signing, no rejection. We just have to wait for that. It’s completely fine; there’s no rush.”
Salah, meanwhile, had indicated that his needs were expressed and that the ball was in the club’s hands to act. He shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Tottenham’s Son Heung-min this season, scoring 23 league goals as Liverpool finished a point behind Man City for the title, and has been the centerpiece of the club’s revitalization over the last five years.
“I want to stay, but it’s not in my hands,” Salah told GQ. “It’s in their hands. They know what I want. I’m not asking for crazy stuff.”
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As for Mané, he was a bit less forthcoming, only offering that all will be known after the Champions League final is over. He had 16 league goals and also won an Africa Cup of Nations title and helped send Senegal to the World Cup—both at Salah and Egypt’s expense—in a year that could wind up with Ballon d’Or consideration. He has been linked to Real Madrid, which missed out on Kylian Mbappé after a lengthy courtship, and Bayern Munich, which is in the middle of its own transfer drama with star striker Robert Lewandowski.
“This question [about my future] I will answer after Champions League,” Mané told Sky Sports. “If I’m staying or not, I’m going to answer after Champions League.”
Klopp said Wednesday there are no surprises in-house at Anfield as far as it relates to the players’ thinking and the club’s thinking about what each party is seeking and thinking regarding potential new contracts.
“Sometimes players have this idea; we have another. Sometimes they don’t match immediately, but we work together; we have known each other for ages. It’s all fine,” Klopp said. ”It is all clear; not one of them is waiting to hear from us what we want to do.”
Liverpool, whose attack benefited greatly from the additions of Diogo Jota and Luís Diaz as complements to its two African stars, is seeking a second Champions League title in three seasons and a measure of retribution for losing to Real Madrid in the 2018 final—a match in which Salah was forced off after being injured in an infamous clash with Sergio Ramos.
