Mo Salah's 'problem' with Sadio Mane and 'selfish' jibe as Liverpool star hurt again

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Mohamed Salah has been hurt again as Egypt failed to make the AFCON final after losing to Senegal on Wednesday night. Sadio Mane scored the only goal to send his team into Africa's showpiece event on Sunday.

Salah and Mane embraced after the game, showcasing their bond after spending five years together at Liverpool. However, it wasn't always rosy for the duo as they battled through a heated rivalry as part of a formidable forward line that also included Roberto Firmino.

Former Manchester City winger Trevor Sinclair highlighted the issues between the pair after Liverpool's 1-0 loss to Chelsea in 2021. Salah was substituted off by Jurgen Klopp much to his own annoyance and Sinclair claimed that problems bubbling underneath were now emerging.

He told talkSPORT: "Salah wasn't happy. It's always difficult when you go to a former employee and you get brought off. Pride-wise, that would have hurt.

"I feel there's been a massive problem which has plastered over the cracks with Salah's relationship with Mane. I feel Mane is a huge team player and Salah is more for himself and that's been a relationship problem for a long time for Liverpool .

"They have got away with it up until now, but when you start coming under pressure and results aren't going your way, that's when that can get strained. There really is a bit of problem between the two players."

The pair publicly fought during the 2019/20 season, when they went to Turf Moor and beat Burnley 3-0. Mane's reaction to being hauled off was to gesture in anger at Salah for not passing to him during an attack.

Firmino inserted himself between the feuding duo and tried to lighten the mood. But Mane was seething and was not happy until he held private talks with Salah at the training ground.

Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents in 2025, he said: "Everybody says the same [that there was a rivalry], you know, usually, [but it’s not a bad thing] that’s what I’m saying.

"So, I think Mo is also a very nice guy. He’s a nice guy. I think, though, inside the pitch you can see sometimes he passes to me, sometimes he doesn’t pass to me; sometimes he passes to me, sometimes he doesn’t pass to me. But, you know, only Bobby (Firmino) was there to share the ball. Sometimes [it was] like this."

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Recalling the infamous Burnley incident, Mane added: "I still remember one game when I was really, really angry because he didn’t pass to me, he should pass to me – Burnley. I was really, really angry after the game and the next day he came to me. He wants to talk to me but he doesn’t know when or how to say.

"He still thinks I’m angry against him because we didn’t see each other, we go home. And the next day he came to me. He said, ‘Can we talk?’ I said, ‘OK, no problem, we go’.

"And he said, ‘You think I didn’t want to pass you? I didn’t score. Bobby scored but even when I got the ball, I was not thinking or even seeing you to pass. I just got the ball. I want to shoot but I have nothing against you, and honestly, if I could pass you and I saw you, I will do.’

"And this, you know, I said, ‘Mo, don’t worry. I was angry because I think you could pass me more with your quality’. I think since this day we become even closer. And sometimes it happened, but we just [carried on] as a striker, because Mo, usually when he see the ball, he don’t see nobody."

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Gary Neville and Arsene Wenger have both pointed out Salah's "selfish" nature that can sometimes be used for good. Neville told Sky Sports in 2020: "His greed is one of his great strengths but he should have left it for his mate. He was never going to get there. You can't do that. As great a player as he is, he knows that's not a great look."

Wenger told beIN Sports: "He [Salah] has similarities with Messi. He must find the consistency of Messi. I find he's a good finisher but Messi has the complete thing, he gives the final ball as well.

"Salah is a bit obsessed with finishing himself. That's a dimension he'll get certainly, when he grows a little bit older, to find the moment when you have to give the ball and when you have to finish. But I like him very much, he has huge potential. Mane as well."

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Even the Liverpool squad chimed in on the feud between Mane and Salah with Andrew Robertson insisting the pair were "paid to be selfish" in order to win. In 2020, he told the ECHO : "The relationship [between the front players] off the pitch is really strong, and on the pitch, the link-up play and everything is always good.

"But these players are also paid to be selfish and we need them to score goals and take risks in the final third. There have been certain occasions where people say Bobby could have passed, Sadio could have passed, or Mo could have passed, but these guys are paid money to make split-second decisions and score goals for us.

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