AS Roma's Sporting Director Reveals Why Club Had to Sell Mohamed Salah Last Summer

AS Roma's sporting director Monchi has revealed that the club had to sell Mohamed Salah last summer in order to meet FIFA's Financial Fair Play regulations. 

The Italian side sold Salah to Liverpool for a fee in the region of £37m prior to the beginning of this season, and it's safe to say that the Egyptian has been a bargain for that price following his goal scoring exploits this campaign.

His first half brace in the Reds' 5-2 Champions League semi final first leg win on Tuesday night against his former club took the Egyptian's tally to 43 in all competitions this season. 

However, while Monchi admitted Roma were sad to see the 25-year-old go, the Giallorossi might not have even made it to the semi-finals had they not sold Salah.

Speaking to Ondo Cero, he said: "We had a need to sell. We had no option but to sell Salah before June 30. Had we not done that, we probably wouldn't be here playing the semi-final of the Champions League as we had UEFA closely monitoring us."

Although Giallorossiendured a difficult night at Anfield, Monchi was full of praise for the recently crowned PFA Player of the Year for his individual performance, providing two assists to complement his man of the match display. 

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He continued: "We congratulate Liverpool for buying him. We had to sell him and the player wanted to leave. Unfortunately, we suffered that on Tuesday night because we know of his quality. He is a very strong player."

Despite the three goal advantage ahead of the return leg in a weeks time, Jurgen Klopp's side will be wary of their opponents ability of overturning a three goal deficit following their heroics against Barcelona in the previous round.

Roma have also recorded a 3-0 win against an English club this season in their Group C clash against Chelsea - a scoreline that would see them through to the Champions League final at the expense of Salah's Liverpool.