Saudi vs MLS: Salah's free-agent call is still open with the World Cup less than four weeks away
Mohamed Salah's free-agent decision is still wide open in mid-May, with his agent Ramy Abbas Issa still publicly on the line that nobody, including Salah himself, knows where the Egyptian will play next season. The Saudi Pro League and Major League Soccer remain the two real destinations, and the 2026 World Cup less than four weeks away gives Salah's camp a clean reason to keep the call back.
Saudi Pro League: two years of pursuit and a real shot
The Saudi Pro League has been chasing Salah for the better part of two seasons. Al-Ittihad's £150 million bid in 2023 was rejected by Liverpool at the time, and Salah went on to extend his contract through 2027. The mutual termination of that deal in March, agreed between Liverpool and the player, has now reopened a door that the Saudis never shut on their side. Al-Ittihad's interest is back, Al-Hilal are also in the mix, and the central recruitment team at the Saudi Pro League has reopened direct talks with Abbas Issa since April.
The financial pitch has not changed in shape: a multi-year contract well above what Salah earns at Liverpool, where his April 2025 extension is worth around £400,000 per week and runs through 2027. The numbers being floated in Saudi reporting run past £1.5 million per week on the high end. That is the leverage the Saudi clubs have always had, and with a free transfer in play this summer, the move costs them nothing on a fee.
MLS: Inter Miami out, San Diego in the conversation
The MLS picture has shifted from a Messi-Inter Miami reunion fantasy into something narrower. Reports out of Florida are clear that Miami are not in active negotiations and have other plans for the summer window, even if the noise around Salah joining Messi refuses to die down completely. The MLS club that has been linked the hardest is the expansion side San Diego FC, whose British-Egyptian owner Mohamed Mansour gives the connection a personal angle that fits Salah's profile as a player who has always thought beyond just the contract.
The MLS pitch is the inverse of Saudi Arabia's. The wages are lower, the league profile is lower, but the lifestyle is the kind of soft sell that has worked on European players in their thirties. Salah has reportedly said he wants to use the World Cup to give his family a chance to see life in the United States up close, with both Saudi Arabia and the USA still flagged as attractive destinations by people close to him.
The World Cup is the real deadline
Egypt's place at the 2026 World Cup gives Salah and his camp a reason to keep the announcement back. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Egypt expect to have him in the squad after a hamstring tweak in Liverpool's run-in. A decision before kick-off pulls focus onto club news during a tournament where Salah is the side's headline act. A decision after the group stage, or after Egypt's run ends, is the cleaner play for everyone involved.
That timeline is the one piece of the picture that does not move. Liverpool's season ends in the next two weeks. The World Cup follows in mid-June. Salah is a free agent in between, with the Saudi clubs ready to write the contract he wants and the American option still on the table for whatever weight he wants to give it. The agent's line for now is the only honest read on where this lands.
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