Mohamed Salah Welcomes His First 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 into the city he still calls home.
The 34-year-old has returned to the UK after his wife, Magi, gave birth to their third child – and their first son – in the north west, where the family spent almost a decade during his glittering spell at Anfield.
The boy’s name is Leil, revealed by Salah’s sister Rabab on social media. In Arabic, it means “night” – a short, striking name for the newest member of one of football’s most recognisable families.
A new chapter for Salah the father
Salah and Magi’s story stretches far beyond the floodlights. Childhood sweethearts from Nagrig, their relationship began long before the Champions League trophies, Premier League titles and Ballon d’Or debates. Magi later trained as a biotechnician, and the pair married in 2013.
Their family has grown alongside Salah’s career. Daughter Makka arrived in 2014, followed by Kayan in 2020. Both became familiar faces to Liverpool supporters, whether walking around Anfield after trophy lifts or appearing in the background of Salah’s celebrations.
Now comes Leil, the couple’s first son, born back in the city they only recently left behind.
From Liverpool legend to life in Trabzon
Salah’s return to Merseyside comes just months after his shock departure from Liverpool. He and the club agreed to terminate his contract a year early, ending a two-year deal signed in 2025 and closing one of the most successful chapters in modern Premier League history.
The plan, at one stage, had been simple: stay another two years, keep the family rooted in the place that had become their base.
“They feel at home [here],” Salah said previously of Magi and the children. “They were very happy that we're staying another two years. It feels like home so everyone was happy.”
That home, at least professionally, is now in Turkey. Salah chose Trabzonspor for the next step of his career, a move that has already brought turbulence. The club’s head coach, Fatih Tekke, departed suddenly after a bruising 5-0 aggregate defeat to Ferencvaros in the Europa League play-offs, a stark early setback in what was supposed to be a fresh project.
Salah responded with a defiant message on social media, underlining his commitment to the club despite the early blow.
“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. “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.”
Family milestones amid football’s grind
While results have stung, life off the pitch has brought joy. Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan revealed that Salah and team-mate Andre Onana both recently became fathers again, marking a shared moment away from the pressure of the season.
“After the (Amed SK) match, I travelled abroad with Salah and Andre Onana,” Dogan said in an interview with 61saat. “Both of them had new children, Onana had twins and Salah a baby boy. I congratulate their families and their wives.”
It is a rare glimpse behind the curtain. Two high-profile former Premier League stars, now in Turkey, slipping out of the intense glare of competition to be present for the most personal of milestones.
For Salah, the symbolism is hard to ignore. A first son, born back in Liverpool, just as he tries to forge a new identity away from the club where he became an icon. A name that means “night” for a player who built his reputation under the lights of Anfield.
He has already made it clear that he still feels bound to his new club “body and soul”. Yet with Leil’s arrival in the city that shaped his peak years, the question lingers: how many chapters does Mohamed Salah still have left to write at the very top of the European game?
