Mohamed Salah breaks silence as Florian Wirtz takes Liverpool’s No.11 shirt
Mohamed Salah has finally spoken out amid controversy after German starlet Florian Wirtz was handed Liverpool’s iconic No.11 jersey following his record-breaking £105 million transfer from Bayer Leverkusen — and the Egyptian forward is far from pleased.
Wirtz, unveiled this week as Liverpool’s new signing, posed with the No.11 shirt — the number Salah has worn since his arrival in 2017 and turned into a symbol of his legendary Anfield career. Fans were left shocked, and Salah has now publicly responded.
“I wasn’t consulted,” Salah posted on his official social media. “I’ve given my all for this club year after year. I never expected someone else to wear my number without a discussion first. I respect Wirtz — he’s a fantastic player. But No.11 means more to me than just a number.”
Salah’s comments quickly went viral, earning over 3 million views in less than an hour and stirring a heated debate among supporters over the club’s handling of the matter.
Reports suggest the decision to give Wirtz No.11 was made by the Liverpool board as a deliberate signal of a “changing of the guard,” with the 21-year-old German seen as a future star under new manager Arne Slot — while Salah, now 33, enters the final year of his contract.
Yet many fans feel this is disrespectful to a club icon who continues to perform at the highest level. “This won’t end well,” one fan wrote. “You don’t treat a legend like Salah this way.”
With tensions mounting, the controversy may well mark the beginning of the end for Salah’s storied career at Anfield.
