Salah started out playing for the youth setups of local teams Ittihad Basyoun and Othmason Tanta.^[18] He names Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Francesco Totti as his childhood idols.^[19] In 2006, he joined the youth team of Al Mokawloon Al Arabaged 14 after being spotted by a scout who had originally come to watch another child play but was distracted by Salah.^[20][21] Salah frequently had to miss school to make the three-hour journey to training.^[19] When Salah was 15 he was noticed by then first-team manager Mohamed Radwan, who moved him to the first-team squad immediately. Salah had to be given a special diet and training program due to his muscles not being fully formed because of his young age.^[22]

Salah made his first-team debut on 3 May 2010 in the Egyptian Premier League, coming on as a substitute in a 1–1 away draw against El Mansoura.^{[citation needed]} During the 2010–11 season Salah continued earning minutes on the pitch, eventually becoming a regular in the team.^[20]Even though he was getting regular game time, Salah struggled to score. In the dressing room after matches he would sometimes be in tears because of this, and Radwan says it only motivated him to become better.^[21] He scored his first goal for them on 25 December 2010 in a 1–1 away draw against Al Ahly.^[23] He remained a regular for Al Mokawloon, appearing in every game of the 2011–12 season.^[24][25] Following the Port Said Stadium riot on 1 February 2012, the Egyptian Premier League was suspended, and on 10 March, the Egyptian Football Associationannounced their decision to cancel the remainder of the season.^[26]

Swiss Super League club Basel had been monitoring Salah for some time,^[27] so following the Egyptian Premier League suspension, the club organised a friendly match with the Egypt national under-23 team.^[28] The match took place on 16 March at the Stadion Rankhof in Basel, and despite only playing the second half, Salah scored twice, helping the Egyptians to a 4–3 win.^[29]Basel subsequently invited Salah to remain in the city for a week's training. On 10 April 2012, it was announced that Salah had signed for Basel on a four-year contract starting from 15 June 2012.^[30][31][32] He initially found it difficult to settle, having arrived unable to speak the language and been signed as a replacement for Xherdan Shaqiri.^[33]Salah scored on his unofficial debut on 23 June 2012 against FCSB during a friendly match, a 4–2 defeat.^[34] He made his official Basel debut in a UEFA Champions League preliminary stage match against the Norwegian club Molde on 8 August, coming on as a substitute in the 74th minute.^[35]He made his league debut on 12 August against Thun, playing the full match.^[36]

He scored his first league goal a week later, the second goal in the 2–0 home win against Lausanne-Sport.^[37] Salah scored his first UEFA Europa League goal in the quarter-finals on 11 April 2013, as Basel advanced to the semi-finals by beating Tottenham Hotspur 4–1 in a penalty shoot-out after a 4–4 aggregate draw.^[38] In the semi-final on 2 May, Salah scored away to Chelsea, although Basel were beaten 5–2 on aggregate.^[39] Despite late disappointment in Europe, Basel won the 2012–13 Swiss Super League title^[40] and finished runners-up in the Swiss Cup.^[41]

Ahead of the 2013–14 Swiss Super Leagueseason, Salah was a member of the Basel team that won the 2013 Uhrencup.^[42] Salah scored in his first league appearance of the season against Aarau on 13 July 2013.^[43] He scored his first Champions League goal a month later against Maccabi Tel Aviv on 6 August 2013 in the third qualifying round.^[44] Salah was the subject of major controversy following the game, after he appeared to deliberately avoid shaking hands with the players of the Israeli club in both the home and away legs.^[45]

He scored twice against the Bulgarian leaguechampions PFC Ludogorets Razgrad on 21 August 2013 in the play-off round.^[46] On 18 September 2013, Salah scored the equaliser against Chelsea in the 2–1 away win during the group stage. During the return tie on 26 November at the St. Jakob-Park, Salah scored the winning goal as Basel beat Chelsea for the second time with a 1–0 home win.^[47] However he was unable to prevent Basel being eliminated in the group stage.^[48]

On the domestic stage, Salah continued to perform. Scoring 4 goals in 18 games,^[49]including a double against title rivals Young Boys,^[50] he helped Basel win the league title for the fifth time in a row.^[51]

On 23 January 2014, it was announced that Salah would leave Basel.^[52] During his time with the club, Salah played a total of 95 games for Basel scoring a total of 21 goals. 47 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, six in the Swiss Cup, 26 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 16 were friendly games. He scored nine goals in the domestic league, four in the cup, seven in the European games and the other was scored during the test games.^[53]

On 23 January 2014, Premier League club Chelsea announced that a deal had been agreed with Basel to sign Salah for a fee reported to be in the region of £11 million.^[54] Three days later the transfer was completed, making him the first Egyptian to sign for the London-based club.^[55]Liverpool had been interested in Salah, and had made an offer of £11 million but were beaten to his signature by Chelsea.^[56]

On 8 February, Salah made his debut for Chelsea in the Premier League, coming on as a substitute in the 3–0 win over Newcastle United.^[57] Seven games later, on 22 March, Salah scored his first goal for Chelsea against Arsenal in the London Derby, coming on as a substitute for Oscar, in a match which ended as a 6–0 home win.^[58] Then, on 5 April, Salah opened the scoring and later won a penalty and assisted the third goal in Chelsea's 3–0 win over Stoke City.^[59]

Before the 2014–15 season, Salah's future with Chelsea looked to be in doubt after reports suggested he could be forced to return to Egypt to carry out military service after his registration for an education scheme was rescinded by the Egyptian Minister of Higher Education.^[60] He was spared of military service after a meeting with the then Egyptian prime minister Ibrahim Mahlab, the Minister of Higher Education, and the Egypt national team manager Shawky Gharieb.^[61] Salah changed squad numbers from 15 to 17 for the start of the season, with his new number having been vacated by Eden Hazard changing to number 10.^[62]

Salah was rarely used during the season, making just three Premier League, two Champions League and three cup appearances, failing to score in any of them. On 28 October 2014, after a poor performance in a 2–1 win away League Two team Shrewsbury Town in the fourth round of the League Cup, he and fellow winger André Schürrlewere criticised publicly by manager José Mourinho.^[63] Although Salah only made three league appearances before his loan move to Fiorentina, Mourinho stated that he would receive a replica winner's medal from the club for his contributions that season.^[64]

On the transfer deadline day, 2 February 2015, Chelsea confirmed that Salah would join Italian club Fiorentina on an 18-month loan until the end of the 2015–16 season, as part of a transfer deal which saw Juan Cuadrado moving in the opposite direction. Six days after signing, he made his debut coming off the bench in the 65th minute as a replacement for Joaquín in a 3–2 home victory against Atalanta in Serie A.^[65] Salah chose the number 74 shirt in honour of the victims of the Port Said Stadium riot.^[66][67][68]

Salah made his first start for Fiorentina on 14 February against Sassuolo, scoring his first goal for the club in the 30th minute. He then provided an assist to Khouma Babacar just two minutes after scoring; the match ended in a 3–1 win for Fiorentina.^[69] Twelve days later, Salah scored his first European goal for Fiorentina, as his side advanced to the round of sixteen of the Europa League, beating Tottenham 3–1 on aggregate.^[70][71] Salah scored the winning goal for Fiorentina against Inter Milan on 1 March, his third goal in Serie A.^[72] Four days after that, Salah scored both of Fiorentina's goals in their 2–1 win away to Juventus in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg.^[73]At the end of the season, Fiorentina activated an option to make the loan move permanent, but Salah refused the move. Even though the loan agreement was for 18 months, Salah refused to return to Fiorentina and instead joined fellow Serie A club Roma.^[74][75] On 11 September, Fiorentina filed a complaint to FIFA, claiming that Chelsea had breached the agreed contract when they allowed Salah to join Roma on loan.^[76] The Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Salah and Chelsea of any wrongdoing.^[77]