Mohamed Salah Returns to Liverpool for Personal Reasons

Mohamed Salah is back in Liverpool, not in red this time, but for a far more personal reason.

The former Anfield hero has returned to the city where his wife Magi has given birth to their third child – and their first son – a boy named Leil, a name that means “night” in Arabic. The news was shared by Salah’s sister, Rabab, on social media, confirming the latest addition to a family that has grown up in parallel with his rise to global superstardom.

For nearly a decade, Liverpool was their world. Salah, Magi – his childhood sweetheart from their hometown of Nagrig – and their two daughters, Makka and Kayan, built a life in the north west. Makka arrived in 2014, just as Salah’s career was beginning to surge onto the European stage, while Kayan followed in 2020, during his peak years as the face of Jürgen Klopp’s relentless Liverpool side.

They had expected to stay even longer. Salah signed a two-year deal in 2025 and spoke openly about how settled his family felt in the city. “They feel at home [here],” he said at the time. “They were very happy, [wife] Magi and the kids, they were very happy that we're staying another two years. It feels like home so everyone was happy.”

That script was torn up. Liverpool and Salah agreed to terminate his contract a year early, ending one of the club’s defining modern eras. He chose a new challenge in Turkey with Trabzonspor, swapping Merseyside drizzle for the Black Sea coast, but Liverpool has clearly remained stitched into the fabric of his family life. When the time came for the birth of his son, they were back in the city that had adopted them.

Salah’s new chapter in Trabzon has already been turbulent. The club crashed out of the Europa League play-offs with a bruising 5-0 aggregate defeat to Ferencvaros, a result that triggered the sudden departure of head coach Fatih Tekke. The early weeks of his Turkish adventure have been a reminder that nothing is guaranteed, not even for a player of his stature.

Salah met that setback head on. In a statement on social media after the Ferencvaros loss, he framed the disappointment as familiar territory rather than a crisis. “Nothing in my career ever came easy. Bad nights and disappointments are part of football, and I have learned to turn them into motivation and into trophies. Trabzonspor is my club, and I am part of this project, body and soul. Last night will not change that. I know expectations are high, and I truly believe we can and will deliver. ‘I came here to win’ is not just a slogan to me.”

The words carried the same steel that Liverpool fans saw for years – the refusal to let one bad night define a season, let alone a career.

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan added a more personal layer to the story when he revealed that Salah’s trip was not just about football. Speaking to 61saat, he explained that after the Amed SK match he travelled abroad with Salah and goalkeeper Andre Onana, and both men had cause for celebration. Onana welcomed twins. Salah, a baby boy. “I congratulate their families and their wives,” Dogan said.

So while the football side of Salah’s new life has started with a jolt – a heavy European exit, a coaching change, pressure already building – his world away from the pitch has never looked fuller. A new club. A new league. A new manager to come. And now, a son whose name evokes the night.

For years, Liverpool lit up Salah’s career. Now, as he settles into life in Turkey, Leil arrives as a different kind of guiding light.