'Mo Salah owes me money!' - Micah Richards makes claim about Egypt icon 11 years on from gesture
Micah Richards has claimed Liverpool legend Mo Salah owes him money following a one-off gesture which became a regular routine 11 years ago.
Richards spent the bulk of his playing career at Manchester City, coming through the ranks and played 245 times - winning the Premier League in historic fashion.
Prior to become one of the most popular pundits with BBC, Sky Sports and CBS, Richards finished his playing career at Aston Villa.
But before that he had a short stint on loan in Serie A at Fiorentina, where he crossed paths with Salah.
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Salah was also on loan with the Florence outfit from Chelsea, scoring nine times in 26 times after signing a temporary deal.
The unlikely link-up came before Salah developed into one of the best players in the world at Liverpool, where he notched 257 goals and won every available trophy.
Richards loved being a teammates with Salah in the 2014/15 campaign but after accidentally becoming his chauffeur, believes he might be due some money in petrol fees from the 'Egyptian King'.
Speaking to SPORTbible, BBC pundit Richards said: "He [Salah] was the best ever. In training he was the best. I was essentially his chauffeur, he didn’t drive when he was out in Florence.
"I dropped him off at training once and he said to me, I’ll see you tomorrow at 9 o’clock’.
"I was like, 'What do you mean, you know you can get a taxi?'. Literally, the training ground was 10 minutes away. From there I picked him up every single morning. He owes me some money!
"That time was just amazing. I was on loan from Man City and I was sort of at the end there and he’d come from Chelsea where it’s not worked out for him and we were just enjoying it without the added pressure. And that side of Mo was just great."
Mo Salah gives Egypt huge boost for historic World Cup clash
Salah helped Egypt reach the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time in their history, finishing second in Group G with five points from three games.
He found the net in the 3-1 win over New Zealand but was substituted in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Iran after suffering a hamstring problem.
However, he has returned to training in timely fashion and is in contention to play some part in the round of 32 meeting with Australia in Arlington, Texas on Friday.
Manager Hossam Hassan gave an encouraging update on Salah's situation, telling beIN Sports: "I will tell you that Salah is part of the team. We are surprised as well; the most important thing is that Salah has been involved in an intensive treatment with medical equipment.
"People who worked hard today, they did their best, and Salah had passion for working. He was involved in his first team training session [since Iran] yesterday.
"Today, he joined our last exercise session, and he is doing very well. I hope that he will be ready and start his fight,"
Topics: Micah Richards, Mohamed Salah, Spotlight
Josh Lawless