Erling Haaland & Mohamed Salah's Christmas truce?! Man City striker sends Instagram message as Egypt hero poses alongside Omar Marmoush

Salah has jetted out to the Africa Cup of Nations after a turbulent few weeks at Liverpool. The forward has been benched by head coach Arne Slot, hit out at the club in an explosive interview and been linked with a January exit. However, he put his current Liverpool troubles to one side to play a starring role for Egypt in their AFCON opener on Monday. The Pharaohs were shocked in their opening fixture as they went 1-0 down to Zimbabwe but hit back in the second half through Marmoush. The game appeared to be heading for a draw until Salah popped up with a stoppage-time winner to secure an important win and a great start to the tournament for his side. 

Salah posed with Marmoush after the game and posted the picture of the two Egypt stars smiling on Instagram. Haaland was quick to respond with the two-word message "Salam brusjans" and a thumbs up emoji. Fans have been quick to speculate about what exactly Haaland means as it appears he's written his message in Arabic and Norwegian. The general consensus is that Haaland is feeling the Christmas spirit and saying something along the lines of "Peace, brothers" or "Hello, bros."

Looking for smarter football bets? Get expert previews, data-driven predictions & winning insights with GOAL Tips on Telegram. Join our growing community now!

Salah and Haaland have been rivals ever since the striker signed for Manchester City in 2022. The Norway star has gone on to collect two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and the Champions League during that time with Pep Guardiola's side. He's also scored goals for fun and has won the Premier League Golden Boot in 2022–23 and 2023–24. Yet Salah has also shone for Liverpool over the same period, adding a second Premier League title to his collection last season and beating Haaland to the Golden Boot. Salah is due back at Liverpool after Egypt's involvement at AFCON but his future at the club had been thrown in to doubt thanks to his explosive interview. The Egypt star accused Liverpool of "throwing him under the bus" and also claimed his relationship with manager Arne Slot had broken down.

While Salah has been having a challenging time at Liverpool, Haaland has made goalscoring look easy throughout his time with City. He recently became the fastest player ever to score 100 Premier League goals, needing just 111 games, and tops this season's scoring charts with 19 goals already from just 17 Premier League outings. Salah said earlier this year that Haaland has it easy being a striker. He told Sky Sports: "I respect him a lot. We may have only spoken once after the last game. But he’s a striker, so his life is easier. I wish him all the best, of course. But his life is easy because he plays as a striker. As a winger, getting that kind of quota is pretty difficult. Any winger can tell you that. That’s why I see it differently between us, because he’s a striker and I’m a winger."

While Salah is at AFCON, Manchester City and Haaland will continue their hunt to regain their Premier League title from Liverpool. Pep Guardiola's side sit two points behind leaders Arsenal and face Nottingham Forest and Sunderland in their festive fixtures.

Meanwhile, Salah will return at some point in January and is now being tipped to stay at Liverpool after the Reds lost summer signing Alexander Isak for a significant period due to a leg fracture that required surgery.