Mohamed Salah is determined to renew his contract with Liverpool, according to an Egyptian sports minister who pleaded with him to leave the Reds.
Liverpool's top scorer Salah is believed to be on the verge of ending months of speculation by agreeing a new deal at Anfield which will see him remain at the club for the peak years of his career.
He will have one year remaining on his current deal at the end of the season, and has been linked with moves to several clubs including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus.
However, his preference has always been to stay with a club for whom he's scored 153 goals in 240 games ever since arriving from Roma in 2017, with his performances propelling him to the very top of the world game.
Salah has scored 28 goals in 37 appearances for the Reds this season, and is leading the charge as they seek to pull off an unprecedented quadruple triumph of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, having already captured the Carabao Cup in February.
Last week the forward was left disappointed as his Egypt side failed to qualify for the World Cup following a penalty shootout defeat to Sadio Mane's Senegal, and after the match the Egypt sports minister Ashraf Sobhi says Salah told him he wants to stay at Anfield against the minister's wishes.
"I met with Mohamed Salah at the airport after the end of the Senegal match and the failure to reach the World Cup finals and said to him to forget what happened and focus on what’s next," Sobhi told Egyptian radio on Monday.
"I have advised him to continue his journey at a club other than Liverpool, but his direction now is to renew his contract with Liverpool.
"There are campaigns against Salah directed by some to bring him down, but I asked him not to pay attention to them."
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has always remained confident that Salah will stay on Merseyside, and spoke about the situation again on Monday ahead of the Champions League trip to Benfica.
"I am happy with it because there's nothing new to say, that's good," said Klopp.
"Just good. The decisive parties are talking to each other and that's all I need. That's it."
Salah goes into the trip to Lisbon having failed to score from open play in his past eight games, but Klopp isn't concerned.
"He might not have scored from open play - maybe a penalty here and there - but it's not too important," said the Reds boss.
"For me, the performance level is important. The threat is for other teams, how he brings (opposing) players together - the moment he gets the ball, two or three players are going for him.
"In these moments, he could decide sometimes in a better way, no doubt about that, such as pass the ball quicker, all these kind of things.
"But it's a tough period for Mo - and for Sadio - with the Africa Cup of Nations and then the games and coming back and being immediately available for us again. That was really, really special."
