Mohamed Salah rejected an offer from Real Madrid in order to remain at Liverpool in 2018, according to former Egypt assistant Hany Ramzy.
The forward has been linked with a move away from Anfield during his goal-filled time at the club, with Madrid and Barcelona usually reported as the interested parties.
Ramzy has said the Spanish giants indeed made a “really good” offer to sign Salah, but that the forward had decided he was happy on Merseyside.
“When I was working with Hector Cuper, we had a training camp in Switzerland [in March 2018],” Ramzy told OnTime Sports .
“I was talking to Salah and he told me that Real Madrid had sent him an offer.
“The offer was really good, but Salah discussed it with me and Mr Cuper, and he decided to stay with Liverpool because he was comfortable there.”
Ramzy wasn’t appointed assistant manager until Cuper was replaced by Javier Aguirre, but said he was at the training camp in order to support the squad.
The offer would have come just months before Salah and Liverpool faced Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Kiev.
Madrid won 3-1 after goals from Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, but the match was overshadowed by an early injury to Salah, who went off in tears with a dislocated shoulder after a challenge from Sergio Ramos.
Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini has said he felt the challenge on Salah was a “masterstroke” from Ramos , with Liverpool’s attack severely blunted for the rest of the final.
Nevertheless, Salah returned to fitness in time for the World Cup later that summer. He scored Egypt’s only two goals in the tournament as they finished the group stage without a point.
Salah is without doubt Egypt's key player, and he is keen to build on the solitary runners-up medal he won at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017.
"Salah is ambitious, he told us that he wanted to win AFCON three times in a row like Egypt did in 2006, 2008 and 2010,” Ramzy added.
Salah is currently bidding to become the first Egyptian player to win the Premier League, and will be anxiously waiting to see whether the league season can be completed in England.