Egyptian
star Mohamed Salah may be setting European and English football alight now but
when he arrived in Switzerland he cast a few doubts in the mind of his first
coach Heiko Vogel.
The
27-year-old forward – an integral part of Liverpool's Champions League success
last season – has started the campaign in flying form scoring a double in last
Sunday's win over Arsenal.
Vogel,
though, told the German SPOX website he wondered whether Salah had the mental
strength to succeed when he asked him to come for a week long trial in 2012 –
on the back of scoring a double for the Egyptian Under-23 side against Basle in
a friendly.
"It
was always clear to me that he is an outstanding player, but whether he had the
mentality? I didn't know that exactly," said Vogel.
"Momo
is a gentle killer.
"I
would be lying if I had prophesied such a massive global career for him."
Vogel
then asked Basle's scouts in Egypt to confirm his potential by taking video
footage of him.
"I
wondered whether the videos had been speeded up," he said.
"He
had everything -– the speed, the finish, the left foot.
"Then
he trained on the first day (in Switzerland); everyone watched the session and
we wondered if he might have a twin brother."
Vogel,
who picks out Arsenal's Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka as the most impressive of
the Premier League-based stars he coached at Basle with Salah and his Liverool
teammate Xherdan Shaqiri the other two, said things progressively got better.
"The
second day was a bit better, but not good.
"And
then came the third day. It was then that he destroyed everything, he was
really unstoppable.
"It
was absolutely extraordinary. He was so agile, so explosive. If he had the ball
on his left foot, it was a goal.
"After
that performance everyone knew why we wanted to sign him."
Vogel,
who was sacked on October 2012 only months after clinching the domestic double,
said Salah's difficulties were understandable.
"Momo
was very sure of himself, but he was immersed in a new world," said Vogel.
"He
had to acclimatise, in the most literal sense of the word.
"He
came to us from the heat of North Africa.
"It
is always difficult when you come into an environment where you don't speak the
language."
Salah,
though was keen as mustard to learn German something which Vogel did his best
to dissuade him from doing.
"He
couldn't speak English at all," said the 43-year-old German, who is
presently coaching third tier German side KFC Uerdingen.
"He
wanted to learn German but I said to him: 'Slow down, champion. German is
bloody difficult. Learn English, that'll be enough for you.'
"Momo
had a really great agent there who could speak English, so we spoke through
him."
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