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Liverpool must stand firm to show that Mohamed Salah vs Cristiano Ronaldo is not a Real Madrid audition

Ronaldo and Salah face off on Friday night: AFP/Getty Images
Ronaldo and Salah face off on Friday night: AFP/Getty Images

The international break has come at an awkward time if you’re a nervous kind of Liverpool fan.

Mohammed Salah versus Cristiano Ronaldo, which takes place on Friday when Egypt play Portugal in Zurich, is a collision of talents bound to intensify the current focus on Anfield’s wondrous new goal-getter.

According to some, Salah is already being measured up for the all-white outfit of Real Madrid or the red-and-blue of Barcelona - although he has not personally given the idea one jot of encouragement.

Unnervingly for those idolising Salah from The Kop, when these kind of stories begin emerging it is usually the beginning of a softening-up operation not exactly discouraged by the Spanish giants.

The end result in recent times has been the arrival on Merseyside of private jets to whisk first Luis Suarez and then Phillipe Coutinho to Catalonia.

But let’s get one thing straight here. It would be highly regrettable and dispiriting for football as a whole if Barcelona came cherry-picking again.

For starters, it is great to watch this Liverpool side putting into practise Jurgen Klopp’s attacking philosophies with Salah at their head.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

His talent is infectious and we should want it to be a sustainable source of entertainment in the Premier League; not something fleeting before he is spirited away.

If we are in a world where an increasingly small but dizzily wealthy and powerful elite of clubs can buy everyone else’s best players time and time and time again - or turn a club as grand as Liverpool into a feeder outfit - then it’s not really a sport. It is more a grim exercise in power.

Yes, it has happened throughout the history of the game, if not to the modern extent. And with nation states backing football teams - Qatar and PSG (and Barcelona to an extent), Abu Dhabi, China and Manchester City, previous Spanish governments and Real - then it is already taking place.

The game is undoubtedly heading further down that road. And it comes to something when a club of Liverpool’s stature isn’t a part of the inner circle - and when the ‘Not For Sale’ messages did not pass the stress-test in the cases of Suarez and Coutinho.

But it doesn’t mean might is right and that’s the end of the story.

Back in the Champions League, Liverpool are in the last eight for the first time since 2009. It is progress, and of the kind Klopp said should be expected - steady and methodical, rather than overnight.

It is true that Klopp became well used to losing his best Borussia Dortmund players to Bayern Munich. How depressing it will be if Barca or Real are able to put him through that again at Anfield.

RealPolitik is a German word, and Liverpool exercise it further down the food chain (one word – Southampton).

It wasn’t romance that brought Salah to Liverpool from Roma, either; it was £38million which did the trick.

Football, though, must maintain a fine balance between the fact that it is business as well as sport. That sounds woolly, but it’s true. And the game is increasingly on the wrong side of the line.

The fact that Salah’s talents are being compared to those of the Nou Camp’s increasingly mesmerising conjuror, Lionel Messi, will also heighten interest in his date in Switzerland with the Argentine’s other half in global superstardom, Ronaldo of Real.

(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

It is something of an audition in the eyes of the football chatter business for the next level that Salah might achieve.

And guess who he comes up against on the second day of the World Cup, when the focus will again be intense? Why, it is his predecessor in the role of marauding Liverpool forward, Saurez of Uruguay.

Egypt also play the hosts in the second round of group games the tournament, and have a friendly against England’s group opponents Belgium. So Salah is going to get more attention here for his international performances than Egypt might normally have warranted.

There is certainly a lot of speculation ahead and if Salah’s raging form continues as it is now, none of it will be discouraged in Spain.

One way Liverpool can transmit the message that they are not in thrall to the super-elite is to take away the prize which has become dominated by Real and Barca - the Champions League in which they meet Manchester City next month.

It is eight years now since Jose Mourinho burst into the salon and claimed it for Inter Milan.

In the ensuing years, it’s been won by Real three times, Barcelona twice, and Bayern and Chelsea (before they shrank from the financial arms race at the top).

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

There will be little prospect of this increasing hegemony being busted if Barcelona and Real are allowed a super-market sweep of anyone and everyone they fancy each summer.

They love taking a stand at Anfield. If the squeeze comes, Salah must stay.

Given that big smile he is wearing so often just now, he looks as happy as can be where he is.

Let’s make sure the joy of football is on offer for everyone - not just Real Madrid and Barcelona.