There is little reason to believe that the "Egyptian King" will relinquish his crown as Africa's top scorer in the English Premier League but who else is on the list? Didier Drogba Salah and the great Ivorian were tied on goals before Liverpool's five-star performance away to Manchester United last weekend.
Now Drogba is in the rearview mirror. Drogba was a dominant force for Chelsea after signing from Marseille, going on to become the first African player to hit a century of English Premier League goals. In the end he played games in the league for the Blues where he also won a number of trophies, including four Premier League titles.
The four-time African Player of the Year also won the golden boot twice in the English top flight. Sadio Mane The third African player to reach a century of English Premier League goals is another of Liverpool's fearsome attacking trident, whom assistant coach Pep Lijnders likened to dinosaurs in Jurassic Park after the feeding frenzy at Old Trafford.
The first 25 of them came in 74 games for Saints after arriving from Red Bull Salzburg in and he has gone from strength to strength at Anfield. The year-old has scored his century in appearances in the English Premier League - which he helped Liverpool to win in , as well as winning a UEFA Champions League with the Reds - and of all the players with the capability of surpassing Salah it is his Liverpool teammate.
It all started at Arsenal, the club he joined in and it ended at Crystal Palace, with a stint at Real Madrid along the way. Miroslav Klose had put Germany ahead after John Terry had misjudged a long clearance from Neuer, and then Lukas Podolski had rounded off a fine move to make it after 32 minutes.
When, five minutes later, Matthew Upson headed in a Steven Gerrard cross, it came as something of a surprise. Who knows what might have happened had it stood. Perhaps Germany, stunned by the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of its lead, would have collapsed. As it was, England, enraged, upped the tempo, blew itself out and was picked apart in the second half.
Lampard did hit the bar with a second-half free kick, but two goals on the counter from Thomas Muller settled the game. The gulf in class was clear, and, for the most part, the English media reflected that. This was not like the goals Sol Campbell had had ruled out against Argentina in and Portugal in There was little anguished howling at the supposed unfairness of what were perfectly reasonable decisions. Even worse, it was one that could have been rectified by a brief glance at a television screen.
Within a matter of seconds, the watching world knew a dreadful error had been made and there was nothing that could be done about it. There was no equivocating: this was manifest. Two years later, as UEFA president Michel Platini argued against goal-line technology and in favor of additional officials positioned next to the goals at Euro , Marko Devic had a goal not given after it had crossed the line for Ukraine against England although there had also been an unseen offside in the build-up.
By , goal-line technology was being used in the Club World Cup. It came into the Premier League in and was at the World Cup in When asked that summer about the non-awarding of his goal four years earlier, Lampard took the high road. Meetings between these two footballing giants have long been guaranteed to produce tension and emotions and the encounter in South Africa was no different, even if both teams showed some inconsistent displays in the group stage.
England, who had scored two goals across a win and two draws prior to facing Germany, still firmly believed in their status as one of the title favourites at the tournament. However, in order to justify that billing they needed an improved performance, particularly in terms of their build-up play and finishing.
Germany, meanwhile, experienced an emotional roller coaster in the group stage. After opening their account with a comfortable thrashing of Australia, they were off-colour in a defeat to Serbia before booking their ticket to the next round with a narrow victory over Ghana.
Nevertheless, at South Africa the youngest Germany team to participate at a World Cup in 76 years proved to be worthy successors to their illustrious predecessors. There was a clear sense of mutual respect between the two rivals in the opening period, before Manuel Neuer launched a long goal kick forward in the 20th minute for Miroslav Klose to chase.
The striker ended up one-on-one with David James and coolly slotted the ball into the net to give Germany the lead. Suddenly the Three Lions believed once more that victory was possible against their arch rivals.
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