‘I want to cry’ – Chelsea legend Didier Drogba makes Mohamed Salah claim after Liverpool player asked for advice
Didier Drogba, a former Chelsea striker, has admitted that Mohamed Salah is likely to break all of his goalscoring records before retiring from professional football.
Following his sublime hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford last month, the Liverpool forward surpassed Drogba’s tally of 104 Premier League goals to become the all-time leading African scorer in the English top flight.
Salah, who currently has 108 Premier League goals, broke the long-standing record set by the ex-Chelsea forward in spectacular fashion. Drogba needed 254 games to score 104 goals, whereas the Reds’ forward did so in only 167.
Drogba remains the most prolific African scorer in Champions League history, with 44 goals to his name, though Salah is only 11 goals away from matching this total.
Drogba, who has been taken aback by Salah’s scoring success, has admitted that it’s only a matter of time before the Egyptian eclipses all of his achievements.
Speaking to Mehwar TV, the Ivorian joked: “If he continues, he’s going to destroy all my records – I want to cry!”
During Drogba’s second stint at Chelsea, the pair were teammates for a brief period during the 2014/15 season.
Salah was loaned out to Fiorentina in the January transfer window of that season due to a lack of first-team opportunities under Jose Mourinho.
Despite failing to make the cut at the London club, Drogba believes it is only a matter of time before Salah demonstrates to the world just how effective he can be.
“What I saw during training, and all his teammates will tell you, the quality was there. He just needed time on the pitch to show his talent and his quality,” he said of the 29-year-old.
“When you look at the squad we had at the time, it was not easy to play. But what really got me attached to Mo is that he’s a really nice guy and really polite even when he was not playing.
“He was sad not to contribute to the team, but he was always good. He said not one word regarding the coach or even the players. When you have this kind of intelligence, it’s just a matter of time before you blow up.”
Salah had success on loan at Fiorentina before joining Roma for the 2015/16 season, a move that was later made permanent.
Although Drogba was no longer a teammate of the Egyptian international at this point in his career, the Liverpool star sought advice from the Ivorian during a dry spell with the Serie A club.
“We spoke a few times when he was at Roma and he was scoring goals,” revealed Drogba.
“He then had a moment when he was not scoring. He asked me ‘how do you deal with this kind of situation’?
“I shared with him a lot of examples of experience and told him it happened to me and all strikers. But you have to go back to basics. As soon as he did that…. boom. He was unstoppable, and still is.”
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‘I want to cry’ – Chelsea legend Didier Drogba makes Mohamed Salah claim after Liverpool player asked for advice
