Luciano Spalletti: Mohamed Salah gives his coaches the ‘best manager award’

Luciano Spalletti says Mohamed Salah rewards any manager fortunate enough to work with him, describing the former Roma forward as one of the players on whom he had a genuine influence.

Spalletti, now manager of Juventus, coached Salah during their time together at Roma. Speaking to Italian newspaper Tuttosport, he named the Egypt international among the players who had made the strongest impression on his coaching career.

“I feel that some of the players with whom I had a real impact were Mohamed Salah at Roma, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Stanislav Lobotka at Napoli, Joao Cancelo at Inter, and David Pizarro at Udinese,” said Spalletti.

“I must be clear about Salah: he gives the award for the best manager to anyone who is lucky enough to coach him.”

Spalletti also explained what he believes a manager must provide to a team.

“The coach must create a sense of comfort, but the most important thing is to make all the players think in the same way,” he said.

Salah joined Roma on loan from Chelsea in the summer of 2015, with the Italian club paying €5m for the temporary move. He completed a permanent transfer to Roma in the summer of 2016 for €15m.

The forward subsequently left Roma for Liverpool in the summer of 2017 in a deal worth €42m, before moving to Trabzon during the previous summer transfer window.

Salah made 83 appearances for Roma, scoring 34 goals and providing 21 assists.