“Sim Salah bis” was the front-page headline of Gazzetta dello Sport last Friday, the day after Mohamed Salah scored the two goals that gave Fiorentina victory against Juventus in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final.
That headline was a reference to the 1960s American cartoon adventure series Jonny Quest, which featured a turbanned character called Hadji, whose catchprase was indeed “Sim Salah bis”, something akin to abracadabra, which he would say before doing something magical.
But, in Italian, bis means again. And Salah, since his loan move from Chelsea on 2 February, has been rather magical, scoring again and again and again. He now has six goals in eight games in three competitions.
The praise in the Italian media has verged on the hysterical for the winger who has settled at Fiorentina in a way that Juan Cuadrado, who moved in the opposite direction, has not at Chelsea. But it reached a higher pitch after his goals in the 2-1 win over Juventus. It was the first time Juve had lost at home for 23 months, since a Champions League defeat in April 2013, against Bayern Munich. And it was the first time they had lost at home against an Italian team since January 2013.
Salah’s first against Juve is a contender for Italy’s goal of the season. Picking up the ball just inside his own half, he ran 10 yards, poked the ball past a defender, left him in his slipstream, reached the penalty area and hit his shot high and across the goalkeeper, Marco Storari. Think Michael Owen against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, but with a left-foot finish, from the left of the penalty spot.
Latching on to Salah’s nickname, the Messi of Egypt, Luca Calamai, from Gazzetta, wrote: “No one laughs at that comparison with Messi now. It is difficult to remember, in the history of the transfer market, a deal so brilliant and incomprehensible.”
Salah, 22, was the supposedly lesser talent in the protracted swap that took Cuadrado, the Colombia winger, to Chelsea for a fee that could rise to £27m, but he does not deserve the status of makeweight.
The Egypt international stood out for Basel with goals that won both their Champions League group games against Chelsea in the autumn of 2013. By January 2014, José Mourinho had seen enough and signed him from the Swiss club, for £11m.
Signed him and then hardly used him. Salah made only six league starts in his 12 months at the club. This autumn he made one start in the Champions League and came on as a substitute in one other group game. Mourinho’s thoughts on Salah’s worth were clear.
And so, with Cuadrado on Chelsea’s radar, a swap of sorts emerged as the best deal. Roma and Napoli were also interested in Salah and Roma could have particular cause to regret missing out. They play Fiorentina in the last 16 of the Europa League, with the first leg in Florence on Thursday.
La Viola have Salah on loan for up to two years, but a fixed, €16m (£11.3m) transfer fee is in place should Fiorentina decide to make the deal permanent. There would appear little doubt that will be the case. It took him two weeks to equal the two goals he scored at Chelsea in one year. He scored his third as Fiorentina beat Tottenham 2-0 in Florence, in the second leg of their Europa League tie at the end of last month.
He did not stop there, as he scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Internazionale at San Siro on 1 March. And then came his goals against Juve. The second leg of their semi-final is early next month.
Vincenzo Montella, the Fiorentina head coach, has changed his system, from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2, to accommodate Salah. He plays him up front alongside Mario Gomez, the Germany forward, and is not asked to track back, something Mourinho demands from all his players. But, Sebastiano Vernazza wrote in Gazzetta, there are valid questions about Chelsea’s willingness to let the winger go: “Goals like Salah’s first against Juventus are scored only by the chosen ones. You have to ask why Mourinho treated him like the fifth wheel in the attack.”
Mourinho’s loss is Montella’s gain as the club, who are four points off third place, look to qualify for next season’s Champions League. The Italian has been shocked by the contribution his new signing has made. Montella said: “Sincerely, we were not expecting an impact like this. We knew Salah was strong, but a start like this goes beyond anyone’s expectations. The boy is similar to Cuadrado, only that he scores more. I have a complete squad – and since January it has been stronger still.”
