Mohamed Salah Welcomes Son Leil in Liverpool
Mohamed Salah slipped quietly back into Liverpool this week, not as the club’s talismanic No. 11, but as a father welcoming a new life in a city that still feels like home.
His wife Magi has given birth to their third child – and their first son – in the north west of England, with the baby boy named Leil, a word that translates to “night” in Arabic. The news first surfaced when Salah’s sister, Rabab, shared the name on social media, a simple reveal that carried plenty of emotion for a family long rooted between Egypt and Merseyside.
A New Chapter, A Familiar City
Salah’s Liverpool contract was torn up in the summer, a mutual decision that ended an era but not the bond. After almost a decade in the city, the family had intended to stay one more year on the two-year deal he signed in 2025, only for both sides to agree to part ways 12 months early.
The move didn’t change how Salah felt about Liverpool. He has spoken openly about the connection he, Magi and their children forged there. “They feel at home [here],” he said previously. “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 sense of belonging explains why, despite now playing his football in Turkey, the couple chose to welcome their son in the city where his daughters grew up and where his legend was written.
Magi, his childhood sweetheart from their hometown of Nagrig, trained as a biotechnician before the pair married in 2013. Their family story has unfolded in parallel with his rise: eldest daughter Makka arrived in 2014, just as Salah’s career began to accelerate, and Kayan followed in 2020. Now comes Leil, the first boy in a family that has spent much of the last decade under Anfield’s floodlights.
From Merseyside to the Black Sea
At 34, Salah is now leading a very different project at Trabzonspor. He chose the Turkish club as the next step in his career, swapping the roar of the Kop for the fevered atmosphere of the Black Sea coast.
Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan revealed how Salah’s personal life has been moving just as quickly as his professional one. Speaking to 61saat, Dogan explained that both Salah and another former Premier League name, Andre Onana, had recently become fathers again.
“After the (Amed SK) match, I travelled abroad with Salah and Andre Onana. Both of them had new children, Onana had twins and Salah a baby boy. I congratulate their families and their wives,” Dogan said.
The trip underlined how, even in the middle of a demanding season, family milestones still cut through the noise of football.
Testing Times in Turkey
On the pitch, Salah’s start in Turkey has been anything but comfortable. Trabzonspor suffered a bruising 5-0 aggregate defeat to Hungarian side Ferencvaros in the Europa League play-offs, a result that cost head coach Fatih Tekke his job and jolted a club that had been talking about ambition and resurgence.
The night stung. Salah didn’t hide from it.
“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,” he wrote in a statement on social media after the loss. “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 weight of someone who has rebuilt himself before, from Basel to Rome to Liverpool, and now to Trabzon. They also arrived just as his life off the pitch shifted again with the birth of Leil.
Between Night and New Beginnings
For Salah, the symbolism is hard to ignore. A heavy European defeat, a coach departing, questions swirling about where Trabzonspor go next – and at the same time, a son named “night” arriving back in the city that shaped his prime.
Night can mean darkness. It can also mean calm, reset, the quiet space before another surge forward.
Salah has never been one to shy away from a challenge. As he returns to Turkey from Liverpool, from the maternity ward back to the training pitch, the question is no longer whether he can handle the pressure.
It’s how far he can drag this new club – and this new chapter of his career – towards the trophies he still insists he came to win.
