Salah’s emotional Anfield start

The loudest part of Mohamed Salah’s latest Anfield appearance came before the first whistle, because Liverpool supporters knew this was his first home start since he announced on March 24 that he will leave at the end of the 2025-26 season. The Premier League’s own match post focused on Salah being in the lineup and on the visible reaction from the crowd inside the stadium. (x.com) (liverpoolfc.com) That reaction landed so hard because Liverpool did not frame this as a rumor or a contract standoff. The club said Salah had reached an agreement to end his time at Anfield after nine years and said he wanted supporters to hear it early out of “respect and gratitude.” (liverpoolfc.com) Salah then made it personal in his own farewell video on March 24. He told fans, “Leaving is never easy,” called Liverpool “my home,” and said the support had carried him through both “the best time” of his career and “the toughest times.” (premierleague.com) So this home start was never going to feel like an ordinary team-sheet update. It was a live rehearsal for goodbye, with every touch carrying the weight of a player who joined from Roma in 2017 and is now closing a nine-year run at the same ground where he became a club icon. (liverpoolfc.com) (skysports.com) The scale of that run explains why supporters reacted emotionally just to seeing his name in the starting eleven. Liverpool say Salah has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances and sits third on the club’s all-time scorers list, while the Premier League says he is Liverpool’s top scorer in the competition’s history. (liverpoolfc.com) (premierleague.com) He also leaves with the full set of modern Liverpool silverware attached to his name. Liverpool credit him with helping win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the Football Association Cup, two League Cups, the Club World Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Community Shield. (liverpoolfc.com) The timing added another layer, because this season has not been a smooth victory lap. Sky Sports reported that Salah’s contract, signed in April 2025, is being cut short by a year after a difficult campaign in which he was dropped at times, and Liverpool are spending the run-in fighting for a Champions League place rather than cruising through a farewell tour. (skysports.com) That is why a single start at Anfield could feel bigger than the match itself. When a 33-year-old forward with nine seasons, 255 goals, and a goodbye already on the record walks out at home again, the crowd is not just greeting a starter — it is trying to hold onto the last few weeks before the final farewell later this year. (liverpoolfc.com) (premierleague.com)