Liverpool’s Succession Plan: Ibrahim Mbaye as Salah's Heir
Mohamed Salah walked out of Anfield this summer leaving behind a legacy that will sit in the club’s history books for decades. Goals, trophies, records – all gone in a single, seismic departure. What hasn’t arrived yet is the obvious replacement.
The new season is less than three weeks away and Liverpool, remarkably, still do not have a natural right-winger through the door. For a club that has built so much of its modern identity on the left foot of one man cutting in from that flank, it’s a striking gap.
The options on the books tell their own story. Jeremie Frimpong can operate high on the right, but he is not a winger by trade and, with Conor Bradley injured, the Dutchman is needed in his more natural right-back role. The interest in Bradley Barcola has stirred some excitement, yet he lives on the opposite flank. None of this answers the simple question: who actually starts on the right on opening day?
On Tuesday night, a name finally cut through the noise.
Ibrahim Mbaye
Reports emerged that Liverpool want the 18-year-old Senegalese forward and that talks are expected to begin soon. Fabrice Hawkins reported genuine interest from the club, while Fabrizio Romano indicated that the player himself is keen on the move. For a recruitment team that has spent the summer scanning a thin market on that side of the pitch, this is no casual link.
This is the profile of a Salah heir.
Mbaye is not being signed, if the deal happens, to walk straight into Salah’s old shirt and churn out 30 goals a season from day one. At 18, he is a project, not a finished product. But he is the type of project Liverpool have repeatedly backed: high ceiling, elite physical tools, and the technical edge to grow into a genuine star.
The right-wing market is, by any measure, bleak. Proven, top-level options are either unavailable or impossibly expensive. Liverpool know this as well as anyone. That’s why a talent like Mbaye, raw but explosive, starts to look less like a gamble and more like the only realistic route to finding a true successor.
Those close to his development talk about a player with the weapons to become a world-beater if his trajectory holds. Pace, directness, the ability to decide games from wide areas – it’s the exact profile that transformed Salah from a clever signing into a phenomenon.
Liverpool have been here before. They built an era by spotting a player just below the absolute elite bracket and giving him the stage to become the main act. Mbaye fits that template. He doesn’t arrive as the new king of Anfield’s right flank. He arrives as the prince in waiting.
If Liverpool do get this over the line, they won’t just be filling a hole in the squad. They’ll be placing a long-term bet on the next great right-sided star to light up the Kop. The question now is simple: in a post-Salah world, are Liverpool ready to trust their future to an 18-year-old with the tools to follow in his footsteps?
