Salah breaks records of Shearer, Ronaldo, Suarez

Sports Desk: Mohamed Salah has broken the Premier League goals record with his 32nd strike in Liverpool's final game of the season against Brighton and Hove Albion.

Salah's record-setting goal came in the 26th minute, when he shot first time on the turn in the penalty area after a neat forward pass by Dominic Solanke.

The Egyptian has surpassed the long-standing record of 31 goals, which was jointly held by Alan Shearer (1995-96), Cristiano Ronaldo (2007-08) and former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez (2013-14).

Shearer was quick to take to Twitter to congratulate Salah.

'Congratulations @MoSalah on the new goal-scoring record. I enjoyed it while it lasted!'

Shearer still holds the record for most goals in a 42-game season along with Andy Cole. The former England internationals hit 34 goals in the 1993-94 (Shearer) and 1994-95 (Cole) season respectively.

Salah looked on course to break that record as well after reaching 31 goals with three games to spare, but he surprisingly failed to find the net in Liverpool's games against Stoke City (0-0) and  Chelsea (0-1).

That is not to undermine the significance of his achievement in breaking the record for a 38-game season.

Indeed, the record has stood firm for 23 years for good reason with striking greats like Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney all failing to achieve the feat.

It only serves to take Salah's season to an even greater height after an extraordinary debut season at Anfield which has seen him emerge as favourite to win the Ballon d'Or for 2018.

The former Chelsea and Roma forward has a remarkable 44 goals to his name this season and a further 13 assists. That puts him ahead of both Lionel Messi (40) and Cristiano Ronaldo (42) to make him Europe's most prolific performer.

And he could further add to his tally in Liverpool's final game of the season, their Champions League final against Ronaldo's Real Madrid on May 26. The game has been touted as a potential decider for this year's Ballon d'Or with the winner of Europe's elite competition likely to be favourite for the Golden Ball.

However, the World Cup is also likely to have a huge say on matters. Should Messi or Ronaldo guide Argentina or Portugal to football's ultimate prize, they will surely overtake Salah in the voting, which happens towards to end of the year.

Salah, meanwhile, faces the tough task of inspiring Egypt out of the World Cup group stages for the first time in the country's history. In fact, the tournament in Russia represents just the third time Egypt have made the final 32.
 

Source: Daily Mail

risingbd/Dhaka/May 13, 2018/A K Azad