Salah’s breakthrough 2017–18 season gave rise to a new chant on the Kop stand at Anfield: “Mo Salah, Mo Salah, Mo Salah, running down the wing, Salah, la-la, la-la, the Egyptian king!” sung to the tune of Sit Down by James.
The band hails from Manchester — a city which rivals Liverpool both in footballing terms and also musically.
At the time, singer Tim Booth, himself a Leeds United fan, told Liverpool FC: “We’ve been precious with Sit Down. We know it means a lot to people and we’ve stopped a lot of adverts or people using it in ways that we felt might denigrate it. But one of the greatest footballers in the world can have it. When he’s playing such beautiful football, it’s a pleasure.”
It was not the only Britpop anthem to get a Salah-inspired re-write that season, with London band Dodgy’s Good Enough providing the tune for a terrace chant the player calls “something special”. Acknowledging Salah’s self-proclaimed pride in his Muslim identity, the fans sing: “If he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me, If he scores another few, then I’ll be Muslim too, If he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me, He’s sitting in the mosque, that’s where I want to be.”