How Mohamed Salah Built a Body That Refuses to Age

At 34, Mohamed Salah is running past defenders half his age at a World Cup. That doesn't happen by accident, and it definitely doesn't happen by eating whatever's in the fridge.

Salah has a personal chef. Every meal is planned. Breakfast is eggs, avocado, and fresh juice. Lunch is his biggest meal with sweet potatoes, broccoli, fish or chicken, and always a salad. Dinner is soup, salad, and more juice. Broccoli appears at almost every meal, which tells you everything about the man's relationship with fun.

"Nutrition is so important," he told France Football. "It has helped with my recovery, allowed me to sleep better, and helped my body adapt quickly."

He allows himself pizza once a month.

When he's back in Egypt, though, all rules quietly bend for koshari, the Egyptian staple dish of rice, lentils, pasta and spiced tomatoes. It's the one meal he eats without calculating anything.

The training, however, is non-negotiable. Five to six days a week, three to four hours per session. Two rooms in his house were converted into gym spaces. A private pool. A hyperbaric chamber.

At the Sharjah International Book Fair in 2024, he revealed the depth of his discipline: "For ten years, I've trained twice a day, even during holidays. I always push myself harder."

He fasts during Ramadan every year, even mid-season. Reports have him working out at 2 AM to fit sessions around the fast. Most people struggle to get to the gym at a reasonable hour. Salah is doing cardio at 2 AM during a month when he can't eat until sunset.

The discipline runs deeper than this physicality. He reads psychology books obsessively and says they account for 90 per cent of his success. He plays chess with an Elo rating of around 1,400, which puts him well above the average club player.

Egypt have never gone past the group stage at a World Cup. Salah knows this, and at 34, he knows this is likely his last real shot at changing it. He has spent years dragging Liverpool through seasons on performances that made no physical sense for someone his age.

He would want to do the same thing for the millions watching from back home.

The body he has spent a decade building wasn't built for club football alone.

It was built for moments like this.