After winning multiple individual trophies in his 2017-18 debut season with Liverpool, and receiving the Premier League Golden Boot for his 32 goals during that season, Mohamed Salah met comedians, actors and fellow Egyptians Hesham Maged and Chico for a light-hearted interview in London.

The second question he was asked was whether he was thinking of melting the Golden Boot down, selling the gold, going back to Egypt and calling an end to his career.

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“That’s the only one that is untouchable,” Salah replied. “The rest you can take.”

For a kid born in Nagrig, a town of 15,000 people in northern Egypt, winning the Premier League’s Golden Boot wasn’t even in his wildest dreams. “Honestly, when I was young all that I dreamt of was to be a well-known player,” Salah told beIN Sports in a recent interview.

Today, he doesn’t have only one Golden Boot, but three. Goal after goal, he has been breaking records almost by the week.

One that was special to him was reaching 129 league goals for Liverpool, in their 7-0 victory against Manchester United in March this year, to break Robbie Fowler’s record as Liverpool’s top scorer in the Premier League era. “That one was the most when I was happy from my heart,” said Salah.

Breaking records motivates Salah to work harder, and whenever he reaches a target, he always sets another one. “Of course I think about it (breaking records), of course I want it,” he said. “But I set it for myself to make me work harder. As long as there is a target you are working for, that gives you a push to work better.”

On Saturday, another one was ticked off. With his goal against Crystal Palace, Salah’s Premier League tally reached 150, equalling Michael Owen’s total for Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, and breaking into the competition’s top 10 scorers in the process.

Just for good measure, that goal was also his 200th for Liverpool, making him only the fifth player in the club’s history to pass the milestone.

Salah’s first Premier League goal, for Chelsea in a 6-0 home win against Arsenal in March 2014, feels light years away, because in the near decade since, he has improved drastically, going from a player who depended largely on his pace and dribbling to a complete forward.

The learning curve Salah experienced in Italy with Fiorentina and then Roma improved his overall game and, after a tough time at Chelsea, he wanted to return to England to showcase his new ceiling. But as his status grew, so did expectations, and in his first game back in the Premier League with Liverpool, Salah was under pressure.

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Midway through a 3-3 draw away to Watford on the opening weekend of the 2017-18 season, Salah felt that his performance in the first half wasn’t one of his best, and that increased the pressure on him. However, after winning a penalty and scoring in the second half, there was a sense of relief.

His goals for Liverpool haven’t stopped since, although it has not been a solo effort. It was Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s then-sporting director, Dave Fallows, their head of recruitment, and Barry Hunter, the chief scout, who convinced Jurgen Klopp that Salah, then at Roma, was the perfect alternative to his fellow German Julian Brandt, who was playing for Bayer Leverkusen.

Klopp and his coaches have transformed Liverpool into one of the best sides in the world during Salah’s six years at the club, and whether it’s Andrew Robertson’s crosses, Jordan Henderson’s selfless runs, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s passing, Virgil van Dijk’s diagonals, Sadio Mane’s assists, or Roberto Firmino’s false nine playmaking, he has been ably supported by the perfect cast.

Complementing that was Salah’s constant improvement of his own game — something Klopp has noticed throughout the years. “I saw him playing with Roma, and I knew that everything he has will be super-important, super-helpful,” Klopp told beIN Sports in October.

“But we all didn’t know, and probably Mo didn’t know in that moment, what kind of goal machine he would become. I was impressed very quickly, but now I am still impressed. He wants to improve all the time. That’s what I love most about him.”

The studious approach to his game and eagerness to improve has expanded his attacking skill set, and the variety of his goals is the ultimate proof.

One iconic Salah finish is him receiving the ball down the right wing…

…before moving inside and sending a curled finish into the far corner.

He scored one of his two favourite Premier League goals that way, against Everton in his first Merseyside derby in December 2017. Collecting the ball by the edge of the penalty box, he manages to outmuscle Cuco Martina, then dribbles past Idrissa Gueye, before curling the ball into the top corner.

When receiving the ball with his back to a defender, Salah’s core strength — which is helped by the impressive physical transformation he has gone through over the years — gives him an advantage in any one-v-one situation. In addition to that, the Egypt captain knows how to use his body.

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For his goal against Manchester City last season at Anfield, Salah gave a smart example of that skill to get the better of Joao Cancelo, and score the winner.

Following a City free kick, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson quickly starts a counter-attack by playing the ball directly up to Salah before the rest of the visitors’ defenders move back into their positions.

As the ball is nearing him…

…Salah puts his back into Cancelo to disrupt the City full-back’s attempts to win possession, and at the same time separates him from its path.

While doing that, Salah uses his right foot to control the ball…

…and then carries it forward with his left…

…before scoring past Ederson.

In this next example, against Manchester United in January 2020, it’s another driven Alisson assist following an opposition set piece.

On the counter, Salah sprints forward to control the goalkeeper’s long pass, with Daniel James tracking back for United.

While carrying the ball forward, Salah uses his right arm as a reference point to constantly assess James’ position as he bears down on goal…

…which helps him on this counter-attack, before he puts the ball into the back of the net to double Liverpool’s lead.

“In that one because he (James) is really fast, and I know (that) he is coming behind me, so I just tried to feel him behind my back, and try as much as I could to just feel him and keep pushing him away,” Salah told fellow Liverpool hero Steven Gerrard in March.

As for his other favourite Premier League goal, no introduction is needed.

In October 2021, Salah bamboozled Manchester City’s defence by dribbling past four players and cutting onto his right foot to score arguably his finest Premier League goal.

“I am trying to practise in training to go from the left side (to the right side) because everybody expects me to shoot with the left,” said Salah. “I try to go inside just to make them (opponents) confused in the game.”

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But the ability to dribble in tight spaces has always been there, since before he made the move to Europe with Swiss club Basel in 2012. Salah credits part of that to his days playing football in the streets, and especially five-a-side games where the pitches are smaller.

The first of his two goals against West Ham United in January 2021 is an example of how he manages to gain an advantage in the smallest of spaces. After he receives the ball from Curtis Jones, Salah finds himself in a one-versus-one situation against Aaron Cresswell…

…and the space becomes smaller when Pablo Fornals drops to support his full-back.

The turning point in this goal comes when Salah makes a feint as if he will dribble towards the byline…

…which forces Cresswell to put his body weight on his left leg. The moment that happens, Salah dribbles inside with his left foot, and because Cresswell has all his weight on the far leg…

…he is too late when he tries to block the shot with that same leg.

Another example came away to Chelsea the following year. Here, Alexander-Arnold spots Salah’s run into space and plays a ball over the defence.

After Salah controls the ball with his right foot, he fakes cutting outside with his left…

…which tricks Marcos Alonso, who uses his right leg as a brake in response.

If you have ever run in any environment, you probably know that the leg used to stop a run is where the body weight resides when you come to a halt…

…and that’s why Alonso slows down for a moment here.

Similar to the previous goal against West Ham, it’s just when the nearest defender has his body weight on the leg furthest from it that Salah pushes the ball into the space.

He then opens his body as if he is going to try to finish into the far corner, but instead slides a shot in at the near one.

Before he used a body feint to get past Alonso, Salah attacked the space to present himself as a passing option to Alexander-Arnold. Clever off-ball movement is another feature in many of his Premier League goals.

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In this example, against Sheffield United in Liverpool’s title-winning 2019-20 season, Salah starts his run into space once he sees Van Dijk playing a ball into Robertson’s path on the other side of the pitch.

The forward’s movement allows him to beat the United defence, and offer Robertson a passing option inside the penalty area. The Scotland captain finds Salah’s run…

… and he scores to give Liverpool the lead.

Here’s another example, from the 4-0 victory against Manchester United in April last year.

As Luis Diaz drops to combine with Joel Matip, Salah is near the edge of the penalty area down Liverpool’s right.

Before Matip’s pass reaches Mane, Salah is already running into space.

Mane then finds him with a clipped pass…

…and Salah manages to score past David de Gea.

It’s important to note how he uses his right foot to control Mane’s pass in the above move — it’s a subtle part of his game that underpins his goalscoring rate.

By controlling passes coming from his left with his right foot, Salah can shoot more quickly with his left instead of controlling and then shooting with the same foot, which would take fractionally longer. This approach gives him a less-than-a-second advantage over opposition defenders, but that can be crucial at the top level.

His first goal against Brentford at Anfield this season is another example.

Here, Salah attacks the space vacated by Mads Roerslev, Brentford’s left wing-back, after a successful Liverpool counter-press. Darwin Nunez plays the pass into him…

…and he controls the ball with his right foot…

…which allows him to quickly shoot with the left.

Off-ball runs into the penalty area are a signature of Salah’s game, but he is also adept with his movement inside the 18-yard box. He understands where the space is, and adjusts his movement accordingly.

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In this next example, against West Ham in February 2020, Robertson is carrying the ball down the left, with Salah and Firmino looking to provide him with passing options inside the area.

When West Ham’s midfield doesn’t drop in time, Salah spots the space between the lines, and changes direction. Meanwhile, Firmino’s run forces the West Ham defenders deeper…

…which allows Salah to attack the space freely. Robertson then plays the cutback to the Egyptian…

…whose shot goes into the net via Lukasz Fabianski’s fumble.

Alongside Manchester United, West Ham are Salah’s favourite opponents in the Premier League, with 10 goals against both since his return to the league in 2017. The only clubs he has faced in the Premier League and not scored against are Luton Town, Swansea City, Sunderland and — ironically — Liverpool. Of those, Swansea (four) are the only team he’s played more than once.

In his journey to 150 Premier League goals, Salah has scored 23 penalties — only missing five spot kicks. Initially, he wasn’t one of the designated penalty takers for Liverpool, and missing his first one with the club against Huddersfield Town in October 2017 didn’t help. But in the reverse fixture three months later, Salah was desperate to score from the spot and keep up with Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur in the Golden Boot race.

“There was a game (against) Huddersfield away, and Kane was scoring 21, 22 and I was scoring 20, 21, something like this — just one goal difference,” said Salah. “Then Millie (James Milner) was in the game, I was like, ‘OK. I am going to take it’. I am asking him nicely to take it. A few players came, and I said, ‘Guys I need to take it, I need to score. We are already up (2-0, after 77 minutes)’.” He scored that one.

To improve this aspect of his game, Salah studies how upcoming opponents’ goalkeepers face penalty kicks. He also rewatches his missed chances from open play to see where he can do better the next time — which doesn’t come as a surprise from someone who used to ask a lot of questions when he first joined the senior squad at Cairo club Al Mokawloon as a teenager.

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Even before that, Salah was working on his finishing. When he was in the youth setup at Al Mokawloon, Hamdi Nouh — one of the club’s best players during their heyday in the 1980s — was a coach and used to work with him on finishing drills after Fajr prayer in the early mornings.

Throughout the years, Salah has been improving all aspects of his game. “Every year, something new in his toolbox” said Klopp, but in that interview with the Egyptian actors, the first question they asked Salah was much more important than the second.

What would he do if he woke up and realised he was on public transport, heading to Al Mokawloon because they have a game?

“I’ll do what I did all over again.”

(Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)