Liverpool have confirmed Mohamed Salah will leave at the end of the 2024-25 season. He won't be going to South Africa. That part is obvious. But the question of where he'd fit if he somehow did is a genuinely interesting one — because the PSL isn't as far removed from that conversation as you might think.
So here's the breakdown, done seriously.
Sundowns is the only logical answer
Mamelodi Sundowns wins this argument before it starts. Eight consecutive league titles, a ninth in reach, and a CAF Champions League semi-final against Espérance de Tunis next month. That's not a club in transition — that's a club still operating at the top of African football. For a player who has spent his entire peak career on continental stages, that matters.
The tactical fit is real too. Head coach Miguel Cardoso — who cut his teeth at FC Porto and worked under Paulo Fonseca at Shakhtar Donetsk — runs a high-possession, structured system that creates exactly the wide overloads Salah has fed off his entire career. Cutting in from the flank into pockets of space isn't just how Salah plays; it's how Sundowns are built to attack.
There's also something poetic about the CAF Champions League angle. Sundowns won it in 2016, beat Zamalek in the final, then lost to Pyramids last season. The one trophy that still eludes them. Salah's home country of Egypt has produced all three of Sundowns' most memorable continental opponents. The narrative writes itself.
Pirates would produce better highlights
Orlando Pirates are top of the Betway Premiership after a 6-0 demolition of TS Galaxy — and right now they are the most watchable side in the league. The identity is pace, directness, width. Put Salah in that system and the highlight reel would be extraordinary.
The atmosphere alone makes a case. Pirates' fanbase, known as "the Ghost", is among the most intense on the continent. Salah has always played up to a crowd. The sight of him at Orlando Stadium — locally known as Esgodini — is genuinely mouth-watering.
But head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou's system demands more pressing and off-ball work than Salah has ever been asked to deliver. The Tshegofatso Mabasa situation is instructive: a striker who couldn't find a regular role at Pirates, shipped on loan to Stellenbosch despite being one of the league's most clinical finishers. Salah would command more accommodation, but the structural tension would exist.
Sundowns lead the title race by one point, though Pirates have a game in hand. Whoever wins the championship, the odds on a Sundowns-Pirates title decider are worth watching as that dynamic plays out.
Chiefs and Stellenbosch: one for the wrong reasons, one for romantics
Kaizer Chiefs are a club of genuine historical weight — Salomon Kalou, who played alongside Salah at Chelsea, has spoken warmly about them — but they've finished outside the top eight for two consecutive seasons for the first time in their history. Co-coaches Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze are still assembling something coherent at Naturena. There's no system there yet that would get anything close to the best from Salah.
Stellenbosch FC deserve a mention purely because Gavin Hunt has quietly turned what looked like a relegation battle into a top-eight push, and because Mabasa — the player Pirates couldn't fit — is thriving there on loan. Hunt gives strikers freedom. He'd probably give Salah the whole pitch.
- Hunt has been explicit about rejecting data-driven football — a direct clash with the analytical environment Salah has thrived in throughout his career
- Stellies reached the CAF Confederation Cup semi-finals last season under Steve Barker — continental football isn't a complete fantasy
- But the infrastructure, the resources, and the sophistication simply aren't there
The romantic option is Cape Town, yes. The practical answer is still Sundowns — the only PSL club with the coaching structure, the medical setup, and the continental stage to make this anything other than a step backwards for one of the best players of his generation.
