Al-Ittihad are ready to test Liverpool's insistence that Mohamed Salah is not for sale this summer with a package worth €150 million ($162 million) for the 31-year-old, according to CBS Sports sources. The Saudi Pro League title holders have made the Egyptian their highest priority target between now and the end of their transfer window on September 20 and are prepared to sanction a deal that would greatly eclipse their country's transfer record, the $97 million Al-Hilal paid for Neymar earlier this month.
Sources indicate that the deal would be made up of around $108 million in guaranteed payments to Liverpool with a further $54 million in performance-related bonuses, not all of which would be easily achievable. The Reds' stance throughout the summer has been emphatic, however. They do not intend to sell Salah, who delivered a timely reminder as to his enduring brilliance with the assist for Darwin Nunez's match-winner in Sunday's 2-1 win over Newcastle.
"Mo Salah is a Liverpool player and essential for everything we do," said manager Jurgen Klopp on Friday. "If there would be something, the answer would be no. My life philosophy is I think about a problem when I have it, and there is absolutely nothing at the moment."
For their part, Al-Ittihad hope that a salary package comparable with Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, who are understood to earn around $216 million a year when bonuses and endorsements are factored in, will convince Salah to push for a move to Saudi Arabia. However, his agent Ramy Abbas said earlier this month that "if we considered leaving LFC this year, we wouldn't have renewed the contract last summer. Mohamed remains committed to LFC." That new contract runs for a further two years and made Salah the best paid player in Liverpool's history.
Al-Ittihad's push to sign Salah in the closing days of the transfer window is at least partly informed by their desire to make a major impact on the Club World Cup, at which they will play as host nation in December. The Saudi Arabian champions are also hunting for a marquee center back addition with former Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain defender Sergio Ramos having emerged as an option. They had expressed an interest in both Arsenal's Gabriel and Manchester United's Raphael Varane but to no avail.