Mohamed Salah has clear reason for wanting new Liverpool contract as talks continue

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is currently in the form of his life, and it seems he's desperate to continue to perform next year.

Earlier this week, the Egyptian bagged his 227th goal for Liverpool, helping it maintain its perfect record in Europe this season as the Reds beat Girona 1-0 in the Champions League. This term, Salah has scored an impressive 16 goals in 22 appearances in all competitions.

The 32-year-old is currently embroiled in a contract saga with the Reds. He is out of contract in the summer, and come next month, will be able to negotiate a move away from Anfield on a free with teams across Europe.

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However, Salah, who has been offered a new deal by the Reds, wants to remain on Merseyside. And one of the reasons he may want to do so is so he can break Ian Rush's goalscoring record. Back in 2022 when Salah signed his current deal, Rush, who scored 346 goals for Liverpool, got in touch to tell the Egyptian: "Now go and see if you can break my record!"

Salah and Rush have a good relationship, with the former reportedly having told the latter at intervals during his Liverpool career that the record is under threat. Speaking back in 2022 after Salah signed his new deal, Rush told the Liverpool ECHO: "If he does [break my record], I'll be the first to congratulate him. But more importantly the first thing is to become a true Liverpool legend. That means being at the club for seven to 10 years."

He continued: "For Mohamed, my job [as a friend] was to let him know that Liverpool is the best club in the world. I am a good friend with Ramy [Abbas, Salah's agent] and Mo, and I met him many times and I met in Dubai, France, London and Liverpool. I have kept trying to tell Ramy to convince Mo to stay. This is a special club. It's the best club in the world.

"If you want to be a true legend, and we've had so many great players like Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, but for all these great players, if you want to be a true legend, you have to be at the club for at least seven to 10 years and that is what it's all about."

Liverpool.com says: "119. That is the current difference between Salah and Rush. Right now, given Salah's age, that looks to be an insurmountable challenge. If we say Salah scores another 20 goals this season - which is not out of the question, he'd need to score 100 to beat Rush, meaning an average of 33 goals in all competitions across the next three seasons. While it's not out of the question Salah breaks Rush's record, you wouldn't put it past him given his drive and how well he is performing right now."