Mohamed Salah’s time with Chelsea Football Club has essentially been a year of disappointment. The Egyptian international has today joined Italian side Fiorentina until the end of the season.
After initially impressing against Chelsea in the 2013 Europa League semi-final by being FC Basel’s liveliest player by far, it wasn’t until a few months later in the next season’s UEFA Champions League group stage that he caught the eye of Jose Mourinho.
On the evening of 18 September 2013, Oscar had put Chelsea ahead of FC Basel at Stamford Bridge with a goal just before half-time. In the 71st minute it was Mohamed Salah who emphatically struck a low curling ball into the bottom left corner of the net that left Chelsea, who would go on to lose that night, speechless. The second time the two sides met during the group stage was at St. Jakob Park where Chelsea seeked revenge. To cap off a dismal 0-0 effort from the Blues, Mohamed Salah ran onto a long ball down the left hand side, and in a pacey flash deposited the ball into the back of the net with less than four minutes to play. Salah was a player that us Chelsea fans had despised, for he had consistently pestered us in every one of our recent meetings with Basel. That is, until we learned that we had been linked with him the next January.
Just a few months after scoring a game winner against Chelsea, Mohamed Salah joined the English giants for a fee of £11 million plus add-ons. Chelsea swooped in and hijacked the deal from Liverpool, who had also contacted FC Basel regarding the availability of Salah, making the deal even sweeter for supporters of the Blues. The pacey winger arrived as a 21-year-old full of promise and ambitiously dubbed by some as “The Egyptian Messi”.
After a year with Chelsea, supporters of the club can concur that Mohamed Salah is in fact “The Egyptian Messi”; minus the finishing, decision making, and passing abilities that the Argentinian star so famously possesses. After getting reduced playing time and not taking advantage of his chances when given, Salah has almost been forgotten by most followers of the west London club. While still so young with much more time to improve, the criticism of some fans towards Salah may be unjust. However, he has not been up to par with the performance level demanded by the club and the fans. His most memorable moment in a blue shirt by far was his first Chelsea goal, which happened to be the final goal in our 6-0 routing of rivals Arsenal.
We all wish Mohamed Salah the best of luck at Fiorentina, and hope he returns to Chelsea a more mature and complete player.
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