African quartet help Liverpool win first ever Premier League title and first league title in 30 years

With a loss by Manchester City on Thursday, Liverpool finally laid claim to their first ever Premier League title and their first league title in 30 years.  A 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace helped cement Liverpool in first place and the loss by City to Chelsea was the clincher needed to bring joy to Reds fans all over the world. 

Playing their part in the return of league success to Anfield were Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, Senegal’s Sadio Mane, Cameroon’s Joel Matip and Naby Keita of Guinea. All four played vital parts in the squad success especially Salah and Mane, whose goal scoring exploits over the past couple of seasons (both were joint top scorers in the league last season) set the stage for manager Jurgen Klopp’s team. 

Salah wrote via Twitter: “Yes. It feels THAT good. I want to thank all our supporters watching us from all corners of the world.

“You made this possible for us and I hope we can keep bringing you the joy you deserve. Now they’re gonna believe us.”  

“It’s great to score goals to help the team to win games,” Salah told Liverpoolfc.com.

“So I feel like I am happy here, I am doing good and everything is also working well with the team and we’ve won trophies. Everything is good and I am enjoying it.

“We did everything we could to make them happy, but without their support we could not do it.

Mane told Liverpoolfc.com “It’s a special moment and a unique moment. It has been a long [time], waiting for the title and finally we got it and you can see how happy the players, the staff, the manager, [the people] around the club, all over the world the supporters are. It’s just an incredible moment and now we have to enjoy this moment and at the same time make sure we are ready for the next games” Talking about coming up short last season, Mane said “Yeah, that’s why this one is really, really unbelievable. The way we have been so close and the next season we come from the beginning, being consistent and having this big gap, I think this is just belief and at the same time we are showing great character and the feeling that everything is possible in football.”  

As for writing his chapter in the Liverpool history book, Mane said “I think this is another step of all of us in our career for what we want to achieve, because as football players you have to be always professional and always hungry in a good way to win everything. I think we have a great team, great staff and the club is amazing, so we have another step and big things to achieve so we won’t stop here. We just have to believe in ourselves still and keep working harder and be humble for sure – work hard and try to achieve bigger and bigger things with this club.”

Mane concluded his interview by saying “The message I have [for the fans] to say is just that we know how we miss them and how they miss us, so it’s on both sides. I think everybody understands the situation at the same time and it’s not easy right now, but we are just here for them and we will do everything possible to make them more proud and proud every single game. And I think we will have time [in the future] to celebrate again this title and make some nice parties and good things together again, and to make sure we are going to be ready again for the next season.” 

Liverpool, who won the 2018-19 Champions League title, have won 28 of their 31 Premier League matches this season