Daily Routine of Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah is the most efficient scorer in Liverpool’s modern history, Africa’s most celebrated active footballer, and the man who — at an age when most players begin managing decline — is still producing the kind of numbers that make defenders feel the mathematics are against them. From the boy who grew up in Nagrig, a rural village in the Gharbia Governorate of the Nile Delta, to the man whose name is sung in stadiums across the world: the distance between those two points was covered by a discipline so complete it has become a professional mythology.
Three Premier League Golden Boots. A Champions League. Career numbers at Liverpool that place him among the Premier League’s all-time great scorers. And at 33, still the player Arne Slot builds his system around, still the forward whose off-ball movement is the most studied in England, still training with the intensity of someone who believes there are records left to break. His daily routine is, across the football world, one of the most referenced and most emulated — a template for the professional standards that produce longevity at the highest level.
Now teammates with Alexander Isak — profiled earlier in this series — Salah operates as part of a Liverpool attack that is arguably among the Premier League’s most dangerous ever assembled. Owaves researched his lifestyle from 8 interviews, social media, club and federation media, and well-documented public sources to build a composite day.
“I am always trying to improve. At 33 you cannot stop. The day you stop improving is the day you start declining. I am not ready for that.” — Mohamed Salah (The Players’ Tribune, 2024)
Mohamed Salah’s Daily Routine
- 6:30 AM — Wake up, Fajr prayer, hydration (🧘 Relax)
- 7:00 AM — Breakfast: Egyptian-influenced table — ful medames, eggs, flatbread, fresh fruit, tea (🥗 Eat)
- 8:00 AM — Drive to Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre, Kirkby (🌊 Flow)
- 8:30 AM — Individual early arrival: finishing drills, movement patterns (🏃 Move)
- 9:30 AM — Full team training: attacking combinations, pressing, transitions (💼 Work)
- 11:30 AM — Extended finishing practice: movement into box, off-ball runs (🏃 Move)
- 12:15 PM — Post-training recovery: ice bath, physiotherapy, stretching (🧘 Relax)
- 1:00 PM — Dhuhr prayer, lunch at AXA: high protein, carbs, salad (🥗 Eat)
- 2:15 PM — Video analysis: defensive positioning, own movement, opponent patterns (💼 Work)
- ~3:15 PM — Asr prayer, afternoon rest / nap (~75 minutes) [estimated] (😴 Sleep)
- ~4:30 PM — Light gym: activation, core, maintenance (🏃 Move)
- 5:30 PM — Family time with wife Magi and daughters (🎮 Play)
- 7:00 PM — Maghrib prayer, family dinner: Egyptian home cooking (🥗 Eat)
- 8:00 PM — Family evening: Salah is famously family-focused (❤️ Love)
- 9:30 PM — Wind-down: Quran, light stretching (🧘 Relax)
- 10:30 PM — Isha prayer, pre-sleep (🧘 Relax)
- 11:00 PM — Lights out (😴 Sleep)
How Mohamed Salah Starts the Day
Mohamed Salah’s morning begins with Fajr prayer before any professional demand enters the picture — a structure shared with Afif, Hakimi, and Skhiri in this series. His Islamic faith has been one of the most publicly documented aspects of his life, expressed not through press releases but through the sujud celebrations that follow every goal, through the Ramadan fasting he maintains while competing at the highest level of English football, and through the daily prayer structure that organises his hours.
Breakfast is Egyptian to its foundation. Ful medames — the slow-cooked fava bean dish that has fuelled the Egyptian Nile Delta for centuries — appears on his morning table with a regularity that nutritionists would struggle to improve upon: high protein, high fibre, low glycaemic index, gut-health supporting, anti-inflammatory. It is, as with harissa in Skhiri’s article, a case of traditional food culture and modern sports nutrition pointing at exactly the same thing.
“Ful medames every morning — it is what my mother made, it is what I grew up eating in Nagrig. It is the best food for energy, for the body. I have never needed to change it. Sometimes the old ways are already the right ways.” — Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC official media, 2023)
Training Like Egypt’s Greatest
Salah trains at the AXA Training Centre — the third Liverpool player profiled at this facility in the series, alongside Van Dijk and Isak. His early arrival — 30 minutes before the squad session — is one of the most consistent and documented features of his professional character across his entire Liverpool career. Coaches, teammates, and club staff have all noted it in interviews dating back to his arrival in 2017.
The finishing work that extends his morning is the most deliberate expression of the philosophy that has produced his goal record: Salah does not score so consistently because he is naturally gifted. He scores because he has rehearsed every scenario in training until the decision is made before the thought.
“I arrive early. I stay late. That is how I was built as a player. The work before the session, the work after — that is where you get better. The session is for the team. The extra time is for me.” — Mohamed Salah (Liverpool FC official media, 2024)
His partnership with Isak — the Swede arriving to complement the Egyptian at the summit of Liverpool’s attack — is one of the Premier League’s most anticipated forward partnerships, built on two players whose professional philosophies are virtually identical despite their cultural distance.
What Salah Eats: Egypt’s Performance Table
Egyptian cuisine is one of the world’s oldest and most nutritionally sophisticated food traditions. Ful medames, koshari (lentils, rice, pasta, and tomato sauce), molokhia (jute leaf soup), grilled fish from the Nile and the Mediterranean, fresh vegetables, olive oil, and legumes form a dietary base that is anti-inflammatory, gut-healthy, and protein-dense. Salah’s loyalty to this food culture across eight years in England is not nostalgia — it is, nutritionally, excellent judgement.
His wife Magi’s cooking is the vehicle for this cultural continuity in Merseyside. The family dinner table is Egyptian, and it is this as much as any sports science protocol that has sustained his body across one of the longest elite careers in Premier League history.
“My wife’s cooking — there is nothing better. Egyptian food. It is what my body knows, what my children are growing up eating. I am very happy that our table at home is fully Egyptian. That is home.” — Mohamed Salah (LFC TV, 2023)
Salah has also spoken publicly about his low-sugar, alcohol-free diet and his commitment to maintaining the same nutritional standards whether it is Ramadan or the busiest period of the Premier League calendar.
What Salah’s Routine Tells Us About the Body Clock
Mohamed Salah’s schedule aligns with the Morning Glory chronotype — the eighth Morning Glory athlete in this series, and the fourth Muslim player whose Morning Glory classification is driven by Fajr prayer. His 6:30 AM wake — the earliest Liverpool player in the series by 45 minutes ahead of Van Dijk — reflects a genuine early-morning orientation that predates his professional career and is embedded in his religious practice.
The three Liverpool players now profiled in this series — Van Dijk (Morning Glory, 6:45 AM), Isak (Sunflower, 7:15 AM), Salah (Morning Glory, 6:30 AM) — form a fascinating clockface of chronotypes at the same club on the same training schedule. Salah’s earlier wake means he arrives at the AXA Training Centre physiologically earlier in his circadian day than either teammate, his cortisol peak aligning with his 8:30 AM individual work window rather than the squad session.
Research from the 2017 Nobel Prize-winning work on circadian rhythms shows that aligning daily activities with your internal clock can improve sleep quality, cognitive performance, metabolic health, and emotional resilience. For Egypt’s greatest modern footballer, still scoring Premier League goals at 33, the routine is the reason.
Want to discover your chronotype? Take the Owaves Chronotype Quiz.
Plan Your Day Like Mohamed Salah with Owaves: My BodyClock
📲 Download Owaves: My BodyClock free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
If you liked this article, you’ll also love:
Owaves: The World’s First Wellness Planner, Powered by Your Body Clock
Owaves is the world’s first wellness planner powered by circadian rhythm science — the same breakthrough research that won the Nobel Prize in 2017. Designed by physicians and built with award-winning developers, Owaves helps you plan your day in alignment with your biology so you can optimize your sleep, energy, focus, and recovery.
Download the app for free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to start planning your day with intention.
Want to go deeper?
Upgrade to BodyClock Plus, our premium feature that uses your unique chronotype to deliver personalized daily recommendations for deep sleep, exercise, and deep work. With BodyClock Plus, your calendar becomes a powerful tool for peak performance and total wellbeing — tailored just for you.
- iOS: Download Owaves free today
- Android users: Join the waitlist here
Connect with us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and Facebook
Feedback? We’d love to hear from you: feedback@owaves.com.