I had to convince Jurgen Klopp to sign Liverpool superstar over player who has just 3 goals this season

Mohamed Salah’s legacy as one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players is not in doubt – but had former manager Jurgen Klopp had his way, the Egyptian may never have arrived on Merseyside.

It has been revealed that Klopp in fact wanted the Reds to sign Julian Brandt ahead of Salah, in a shock revelation by former Liverpool Director of Research Ian Graham. The signing of Salah was one of the key catalysts for Liverpool’s return to domestic and European dominance in the late 2010s, but it could all have been very different.

Graham said when speaking to BBC Sport: “From our data analysis point of view, Mo was the best young wide forward in Europe, full stop. Roma were under pressure to sell, but Jurgen’s preferred option was Julian Brandt. He was one of the young stars of the Bundesliga, and Jurgen, being German and having managed in that league for many years, knew the German market very well.”

He revealed that Liverpool’s transfer committee had to hold a meeting with Klopp to present their argument for why Salah should be signed over then-Bayer Leverkusen man Brandt.

He added: “The question was about his fit – we already had some great attacking midfielders in our team. We agreed that Brandt was a very good young player, but not a stand-out in the same way that Mo was. I think it’s to Jurgen’s credit that he engaged in that debate in an honest way, with his eyes open.”

How different Liverpool’s recent history could have been

It is unthinkable to consider what Klopp’s Liverpool side would have been without Salah – but that could so easily have been reality. Peter Krawietz, Liverpool’s Assistant Manager under Klopp, said: “After one analysis meeting, when we saw what Mo is able to do, it was clear.”

The rest is history: Liverpool were inspired by Salah in his debut season for the club, as he scored 32 Premier League goals and helped lead the Reds to the Champions League final.

The Egyptian followed that ground-breaking debut campaign with faultless consistency in all which followed and was an integral part of the Liverpool side which won the Premier League and Champions League. Klopp’s men even went one better, winning every trophy available to them and officially becoming world champions for the first time after winning the Club World Cup in 2019.

Brandt’s career in numbers: how does it compare with Salah?

Since that fateful summer in 2017, Brandt’s career has gone on a very different trajectory to that of Salah. The 28-year-old has never hit double figures in Bundesliga goals in his career and has netted just three times for Borussia Dortmund in the league in 2024/25.

While admittedly he plays a bit further back than Salah, Brandt has a career-best of just 21 goal contributions in the league – and his 83 Bundesliga assists is less than Salah’s 86 in the Premier League, with Brandt having played 54 more games.

Salah has retained world-class goalscoring numbers, only falling short of 30 goal contributions in a Premier League season twice in his eight seasons with Liverpool. His 184 Premier League goals place him joint-fifth in the competitions all-time top goal-scoring charts - level with Sergio Aguero.

The 32-year-old is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, and it’s likely that come the end of the season Salah will have usurped Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer to top the list of the highest number of Premier League goal contributions in a campaign.

While the numbers speak for themselves, Salah’s impact has gone beyond that. He has become a legendary figure on the red half of Merseyside and has won everything there is to win for the club. Brandt has yet to win the Bundesliga in his career, joining Borussia Dortmund in 2019 for €25million but with just two domestic cup wins to show for it.

Brandt started in the 2023/24 Champions League Final as Dortmund were defeated 2-0 by Real Madrid. While Brandt has remained regularly linked with Premier League clubs in recent years, most recently Tottenham Hotspur around the January transfer window, it can be argued that his career hasn’t reached the heights it could have. Particularly if we are to compare him with Salah.