Footballer Mohamed Salah is cover star of British GQ’s first global sports issue

The interview with the 29-year-old Liverpool player is one of three GQ cover stories to be released this week.

He told the publication of his goal to become “the best football player in the world”: “If you asked me if this was a drive for me to be here? Yeah, of course.

“I can’t really lie and say honestly I didn’t think about it. No, I think about it. I want to be the best player in the world.

“But I will have a good life even if I don’t win (the Ballon d’Or). My life is OK, everything is fine.”

The cover marks the first issue under British GQ’s newly-announced head of editorial content, Adam Baidawi.

Writing in his first editor’s letter, Baidawi said: “It is a wild and wonderful honour to take leadership of British GQ, and to be asked to succeed an unimpeachable era of greatness in storytelling, style, and influence.

“Everyone knows what British luxury has been – and now my team and I get the radical responsibility of documenting a whole new British luxury; a whole new Britain.”

He said he and his team will be “tinkering with every aspect of what our brand does”, adding: “We want to electrify it, democratise it, and let it act as both a signal and receiver to the wider world.”

Salah’s current contract with Liverpool is due to expire next year.

He said of negotiations regarding his contract renewal with the team: “I want to stay, but it’s not in my hands. It’s in their hands. They know what I want. I’m not asking for crazy stuff.”

– The GQ Global Sports Issue is available on newsstands and via digital download from January 25.