World Cup 2026: At 34, Mohamed Salah Is Changing But Not in the Way You Think

There is a fundamental misunderstanding about Mohamed Salah — one that his history and status as a footballer, not just as a public figure, continues to feed.

Monday’s World Cup date with Belgium coincided with his 34th birthday and it is obvious that he no longer has the speed that once made him such a frightening opponent. Yet to some extent, little has actually changed. There might be a drift towards becoming a “moments” player — one who waits before pouncing — but both versions of Salah have needed things to work around him in order for his best version to shine.

That has always been true. What is still not widely understood is why.

The Reality: He Has Never Done It Alone

Salah might need someone like Trent Alexander-Arnold — his partner at Liverpool for eight years — to be behind him, threading passes quickly into space. He might need someone like Roberto Firmino buzzing around him, and hard-running midfielders creating the pockets that make him so devastating.

With Egypt, the same principle applies. He requires Emam Ashour to be on point. He requires Marwan Attia agitating beside him. He requires Mohamed Hany to spring forward from right-back at the right moment.

He can try to educate others about what it takes to become an elite footballer. But once a game kicks off, he cannot do it all by himself. He requires help — and he always has.

This is not a criticism. Without Salah, Anfield never dreams of the impossible. Without him, Cairo does not erupt, and Egypt — who have not qualified for the World Cup since 1990 — do not reach 2026.

But two unhealthy impressions have formed: one, that he carries teams by himself; the other, that teams often have to carry him because he contributes nothing defensively. Parts of both arguments are true. Parts of both are wrong.

The Messi Parallel

The conversation was similar with Lionel Messi until 2022, when he lifted the World Cup as Argentina’s captain at his fifth attempt. He is probably the greatest footballer to play the sport. Yet until Argentina established the right system and found the right teammates to support him, Messi fell short — repeatedly.

Even Messi needs help.

It is probably not a coincidence that Messi thrived as a loose forward in Qatar, where Argentina mastered the 4-4-2. In Seattle, against Belgium, Egypt adopted a similar shape in possession — with Salah pushing up beside Omar Marmoush in attack, rather than operating from the right flank, as he has tended to do with club and country for nearly a decade.

The Liverpool Season That Went Wrong

In a Liverpool shirt last season, Salah was on the periphery in a significant number of games. Everything changed around him: different players behind, different runners inside, a constant rotation of candidates doing the movement work — some unsuccessfully. The relationships simply were not there.

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s attacking plan was re-centralised around Florian Wirtz — a decision that did not ultimately work. The consequence was Salah isolated, without the support structure that has always been essential to his best football.

With injuries elsewhere, trying him as a centre-forward seemed an obvious adaptation — but Arne Slot thought otherwise. The relationships and the system that made Salah unstoppable for years at Anfield had been dismantled, and nothing comparable had been built to replace them.

What Hassan Did in Seattle

In Seattle, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan sprang a surprise: a positional switch involving three players, with Salah repositioned as a No 10 rather than a conventional wide forward.

This was not a conventional, possession-heavy game. The possession stats were broadly even. But the tactical interest lay in what Salah did without the ball when Belgium moved forward.

He did not track back in a conventional pressing sense. Instead, he occupied a space between Belgium’s two holding midfielders — making Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans constantly look over their shoulders. This is the kind of action that raw data does not capture, but its effect was tangible: with Belgium’s central midfielders distracted and uncertain, Egypt’s midfielders had more room, and the team could progress attacks more effectively.

Structurally, Salah helped Egypt in ways that will not show up prominently in the post-match statistics.

The Goal, the Card, and the Draw

The on-ball contributions were significant too. Inside the first 20 minutes, Salah’s threat had drawn a yellow card from Timothy Castagne — immediately restricting Belgium’s ability to press his side of the pitch. Shortly after, he assisted Egypt’s opening goal: Ashour darting in from the left to wrap a delicious sweeping shot past Thibaut Courtois.

Courtois is arguably Belgium’s only genuinely world-class player at this point. But they still have players who, like Salah, know their way around a football pitch. Their equaliser came from an own goal by Hany, who was attempting to prevent the recently introduced Romelu Lukaku — aged 33 — from steering in a cross.

A 1-1 draw left both teams with a point, though Egypt’s remaining group opponents — New Zealand and Iran — represent more navigable fixtures.

Why Salah Came Off — and What He Said

Salah was substituted with 15 minutes remaining. Famously, he hated being taken off during his time at Liverpool. But the context here was specific.

He had told colleagues at the club where he became a legend that he did not particularly enjoy living or playing in extreme heat — it reduced his capacity and the impact he could have. In Seattle, temperatures were pushing 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32°C) by early afternoon for a game that kicked off at midday.

Having put so much into a match of that intensity in those conditions, it made practical sense to try to close the game out with fresh legs. Hassan trusted the decision, and it worked.

It was telling that in his post-match comments, Hassan specifically singled out Salah and Marmoush for “giving their all.”

Still Misunderstood After All These Years

Watching Salah operate as a No 10, tracking the movement of Belgium’s holding midfielders, controlling the space between the lines, and then surging forward when the moment presented itself — it was a portrait of a footballer who has evolved.

The pace that made defenders desperate is diminished. The instincts — where to stand, when to move, how to occupy a space that creates problems for someone else — are as sharp as ever. Perhaps sharper.

The misunderstanding about Salah is not new. It persisted when he was at the peak of his physical powers: the critics who said he vanished from games, the admirers who credited him with single-handedly winning matches. Both were, in their own way, wrong.

He is, and has always been, a contextual player — someone whose extraordinary individual quality requires the right system, the right teammates, and the right structural conditions to express itself fully. When those conditions exist, he is devastating. When they do not, he appears absent.

At 34, on his birthday, in the heat of a World Cup midday kickoff, he helped Egypt draw with Belgium and left the pitch with the match still level.

In the context of Egypt’s journey to this tournament — their first World Cup since 1990 — that was no small thing.

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