Former Basel chief Heiko Vogel admits they thought they'd signed a flop in Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian moved from El Mokawloon in his homeland to Basel, Switzerland in 2012.

Vogel recalled to SPOX: "If you knew him, he is not a world star, he has such a gentle character.

"It was always clear to me that he is an outstanding player, but whether he had the mentality? I didn't know that exactly. Momo is a gentle killer."

Of the inauspicious start at Basel, Vogel added: "Gegge (Heitz) and I told him: 'Listen, just train as you like - we've already made our decision anyway'.

"Then he trained on the first day; everyone watched the session and we wondered if he might have a twin brother!

"The second day was a bit better, but not good. Gegge and I had already been talking him up for the tiniest things, saying stuff like: 'did you see that pass?'."

"And then came the third day," Vogel continued. "It was then that he destroyed everything, he was really unstoppable.

"[The first two days] he wasn't nervous. He was confident, but immersed in a new world. He had to acclimate himself in the truest sense of the word. He came to us from hot north Africa."