Rio Ferdinand has said that Mohamed Salah belongs in Liverpool’s top tier, and the blunt truth is that this should not shock anyone anymore.
Once a player has reached 250 Liverpool goals, driven one of the club’s great modern sides, and managed 323 appearances, 191 goals and 93 assists in the Premier League, the argument stops being sentimental and starts becoming historical.
Now, Ferdinand has shared his belief that only Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard rank higher in the Reds’ history books.
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Rio Ferdinand ranks Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard above Mohamed Salah
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, he said: “You’re talking to Kenny Dalglish, as you’re talking to Steven Gerrard’s, to Ian Rush’s, Mo Salah comes into that category, I’m telling you.
“As a footballer, I would say I’d go third on that list. I’d go Kenny Dalglish or Steven Gerrard, Mo Salah, Ian Rush. That’s where I’d go.”
That matters because it cuts through a lazy habit that still follows the 33-year-old around. He is still too often discussed like an outstanding modern player rather than one of the defining figures in the club’s full history, and his body of work no longer leaves room for that smaller framing.
Salah’s Liverpool numbers have moved beyond ordinary greatness
The simplest way to judge this is to start with volume. Salah reached 250 Liverpool goals in November 2025, placing him in territory that only the most important players in the club’s history ever reach.
That number alone would put him in rare company, but his case does not stop there. He also owns the record for the most goal involvements for a single club in Premier League history, taking that total to 277.
There is then the European standard to consider. Salah reached 50 Champions League goals in March 2026, which is another marker of elite longevity at the highest level.
Even stripped back to league numbers alone, the scale is obvious. His official Premier League return of 323 appearances, 191 goals and 93 assists is not just excellent output, but the profile of a player who has dominated matches for years.
Great Liverpool players are not judged on isolated production. They are judged on whether they changed the club’s story, and Salah has done exactly that while helping deliver the biggest prizes in the game.
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He has won the Premier League and Champions League during his spell at Anfield, alongside domestic cup success and individual landmarks. That means his numbers were not compiled in a vacuum, but built inside a winning cycle that restored the Merseyside outfit to the top of English and European football.
That distinction matters when comparisons begin. Pure statistics can flatter some players, but statistics attached to titles, longevity and repeated decisive seasons create a much heavier case.
This is where Ferdinand’s ranking feels more accurate than provocative. Once Salah has been placed beside Dalglish, Gerrard and Rush, the debate becomes about preference, era and weighting rather than about whether he belongs in that room at all.
There is a fair argument over who sits first, second or third, because different generations will value different qualities. What is much harder to defend now is any attempt to push Salah outside Liverpool’s top three without ignoring either the goals, the honours or the duration of his excellence.
Nostalgia will always have a voice in these discussions, and some of that is understandable. But nostalgia is not evidence, and Salah’s Liverpool career now has too much evidence attached to it for anyone to keep treating him as a tier below the very best.
Ferdinand’s exact order can still be disputed, and that is part of the fun of the argument. The wider verdict feels settled now: Salah is no longer knocking on the door of Liverpool’s greatest-ever bracket, because his record has already carried him through it.
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