Roma sporting director Monchi has taken responsibility for selling Mohamed Salah to Liverpool, but admits that the club had little option as they were under pressure to comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
Salah was the star of Liverpool’s 5-2 win over Roma in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie as he scored a brace at Anfield to take his goals tally for the season to 43.
The Egyptian signed for Liverpool last summer from Roma following an agreement worth €42m, which Giallorossi president James Pallotta recently claimed that the Reds found excessive.
However, the deal is turning out to be a bargain for Liverpool as they stand on the cusp of a Champions League final appearance on the back of Salah’s heroics in Europe this season.
The transfer seems even more favourable to Liverpool because of the some of the money that was thrown around in the last two windows for players such as Neymar, Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho.
relatedNewsStory
But Monchi stressed that Roma could do little as they had to sell Salah before 30th June last year in order to balance their books and comply with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
He told Spanish radio station Onda Cero on selling Salah: “I sold Salah and I have to accept that reality.
“I sold him for a little more than €42m, but I have an explanation for it.
"We had to sell him before 30th June and if we didn’t we wouldn’t playing in the Champions League semi-finals. We had a demanding UEFA and we needed to sell.
“When I arrived there was an offer of €30m and we reached €50m including bonuses, that’s the best we could do.”
The Roma deal-maker added: “Obviously the market has gone crazy with Neymar, Dembele and Coutinho and then the player is having a great season.
“So congratulations to Liverpool for having signed him, but we didn’t have any other solution as he wanted to leave and we had to do it before 30th June.”
