Highlights

  • Salah's work rate and dedication to football is evident from a young age, as he would go through a nine-hour round trip to attend training, showing his passion and determination to succeed.
  • Salah's incredible level of forgiveness is showcased when he persuaded his father not to press charges against a thief who stole from their car, and even gave the thief money to help turn his life around.
  • Salah's kind-hearted nature is evident in various situations, such as when he paid for everyone's petrol during the coronavirus pandemic, stopped to check on a young fan who broke his nose, and visited Kenya's dressing room to wish them good luck after a match.

Mohamed Salah is arguably one of the greatest Liverpool players of all time. The Egyptian has been incredible since arriving at Anfield in 2017. Under Jurgen Klopp, he's consistently been one of the best players in the Premier League and is showing no signs of slowing down. This season alone, he has 18 goal contributions in 19 appearances and is still one of the most impressive talents on the planet. But he’s not just world-class on the pitch.

Off the pitch, Salah has proved he’s just as good a human as he is a player. We all know how good the 31-year-old is at football but some may not know just how good he is at being a genuinely brilliant person. Jurgen Klopp has previously spoken about his star player, describing just how great a character he is.

"What you don’t see and what you maybe don’t know, is what kind of good person he is. If I tell you he’s an even better person than he is a player, then you might be able to imagine what kind of guy he is."

Over the years, a number of brilliant stories have emerged that show just how incredible Salah is off the pitch. And we’ve compiled nine of the very best examples that sum the Liverpool star up perfectly.

1 Nine-hour round trip to training

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Salah faced a battle just to make it in Egypt. At 13, he was scouted by Al Mokawloon, a team in Egypt's top division. However, it was 82 miles south of Salah’s hometown. It meant he would go to school at 7am, leave after two hours and walk a mile to the bus stop. He'd catch a bus to Basyoun, another from Basyoun to Tanta, another from Tanta to Cairo and then another to the training ground in Nasr City. It was a tough ask, but something the star has admitted was worth it.

“Half an hour, one hour, then two hours, then maybe half an hour or 45 minutes for the last one. I know when we say nine hours this looks crazy, but I did it because I loved it.

“I wanted to be where I am now, so I didn't feel that it was that hard.”

It just goes to show Salah’s work rate and humbleness from an early age. If anyone deserves to have reached the very top of football, it's certainly the Liverpool forward.

2 Giving money to a thief who robbed his dad

Mo Salah

When Salah was young, a thief stole 30,000 Egyptian pounds — about £1,400 — from Salah's father's car. The police caught the culprit, but Salah persuaded his dad not to press charges. He then gave the thief money to help turn his life around.

“I'm not supporting that [stealing]. But I'm sure he had a bigger reason to steal. I just feel he did it for a reason. When my father asked, the police said he was a really poor guy and had nothing in his life. So I told him: Just help him and leave him alone.”

It's an insane level of forgiveness that shows the kind of human being that Salah is. There aren't many who would be able to approach such a situation in this manner. Not only forgiving the thief, but also using the moment to help change his life for the better is an incredible way to handle things.

3 Helping homeless man at a petrol station

Salah pulled up at a petrol station in his Bentley to see some young lads harassing a homeless man. Salah told the kids "That could be you in a few years" and gave the homeless man £100 to get a room for the night. Speaking about the situation, the homeless man, David Craig said, revealed just how generous and humble the Liverpool man had been when he came across them.

“Mo was every bit as wonderful as he is for Liverpool on the pitch. He heard what a group of lads were saying to me, then turned to them and said, ‘That could be you in a few years’. I only knew I wasn’t hallucinating when Mo incredibly handed me £100. What a complete legend. They were calling me names, asking why I was begging and telling me to get a job.

“He (Salah) saw what was happening and said something to them and then he went to the cash machine. I was more than chuffed. I’m a massive fan. Mo is a real-life hero in my eyes and I want to thank him.”

It's a level of generosity and humbleness that you don't often see or hear about from celebrities with the level of star power that Salah currently has. It's encouraging to see he's retained that level-headed mindset, despite being one of the most popular footballers on the planet.

4 Paying for everyone’s petrol​​​​​

During the coronavirus pandemic, Salah turned up to a Sainsbury’s petrol forecourt in his Liverpool training kit and paid for everyone’s fuel. The entire world was struggling at the time and with so many forced to stay at home, money was a bit of an issue. Deciding to help out and pay for everyone at the station was an incredible gesture from the Egyptian.

It's just another example of Salah going above and beyond when he didn't necessarily have to, proving yet again what a top-class human being he is.

5 Stopping for a kid who broke his nose trying to wave at him

11-year-old Louis Fowler spotted Salah driving through his neighbourhood. But the young lad got a bit excited and ran straight into a lamp post, breaking his nose in the process. Salah had seen what happened and stopped to check he was okay. Capturing the entire moment, a neighbour revealed what exactly happened.

"It all happened so quickly we hadn't even had the chance to clean him up. He'd seen one of the boys had hurt himself, and he had the decency to drive back into the close to check that he was OK. No one could believe it. Everyone was gobsmacked. Mo asked if the boys were all right and gave them a big hug, which was what they both needed. They were made up and Louis forgot all about being injured."

Considering how popular Salah is now, he's likely used to dealing with adoring fans, but it's nice to see he still appreciates them. Taking the time to check up on the young fan was such a classy move from the forward and will have only further strengthened the love that the younger had for him.

Read More: Ranking Mohamed Salah's best 11 Liverpool goals

6 Visiting Kenya’s dressing room

Mohamed Salah

After Egypt played Kenya in an AFCON qualifier, Salah was filmed inside the opposition’s dressing room after the match and wished them good luck. He also gave his match shirt to midfielder Kenneth Muguna. It was a small moment, but one that likely meant a lot to the Kenyan team.

Playing against someone like Salah was likely important to many of the players in the team, so taking the time to personally wish them the best and spend time with them afterwards was a classy move from the Liverpool man and just another example of him going the extra mile to make others happy.

7 Giving shirts to young fans

Okay, this isn’t actually groundbreaking but Salah has a great relationship with Liverpool fans and has a history of identifying young supporters in the ground and handing them his shirt. A small gesture but one that usually makes their day. He's far from the first player to do so, and many footballers do the same thing, but the sheer volume of times he's done it is quite impressive.

Just look at how much it means to this young fan. It's the little moments like this that really make a difference to young fans and Salah has done something like this numerous times.

8 Charity work and incredible gestures in Egypt

Mo Salah

Salah hasn’t forgotten where he came from. He is constantly trying to better the lives of people back in his home nation. In 2018, it was reported that he was funding the construction of a medical centre and school for girls in his home town of Nagrig. He also paid the bill for a bone marrow transplant for a young Egyptian boy when his family were unable to afford it.

It would have been easy for the star to have forgotten his roots once he made it big and earned serious money, but that isn't something he's done. Instead, he's ensured he continues to embrace his home and done so in the best way possible.

9 Handing out numerous shirts to his opponents

Mo Salah

When you're as big a star as Salah, it's only natural that there will be plenty of opposition players who want to swap shirts with you. The issue is, that you can only swap with one in every game. Well, that's usually the case, but Salah found a way around it during Liverpool's Europa League match against LASK.

Numerous players approached the Egyptian during the match asking to swap, and he duly obliged. He even had spares in the changing room that he promised to swap with some of the LASK players. It's a classy move from the Egyptian and the latest in a long series of moves that have shown just how great and humble a human being he truly is.