Salah played for Basel in the UEFA Europa League match in March 2013 away against Zenit St. Petersburg.
The Swiss Super League club Basel had been monitoring Salah for some time, so after the suspension of the Egyptian Premier League, the club organized a friendly match with the Egyptian U23 national team. The match took place on March 16 at Rankhof Stadium in Basel, and although he only played in the second half, Salah scored two goals and helped the Egyptians to a 4-3 victory. Basel then invited Salah to stay at the team’s training camp for a week. On April 10, 2012, it was announced that Salah had signed a four-year contract with Basel, which began on June 15, 2012. Initially, he struggled to adapt as he did not speak the language and was signed as a replacement for Xherdan Shaqiri. Salah scored his first goal at his unofficial debut on June 23, 2012, against Steaua Bucharest during a friendly match, which ended in a 4-2 loss. His official Basel debut came in a UEFA Champions League pre-qualification match against Norwegian club Molde on August 8 when he came on as a substitute in the 74th minute. He made his league debut on August 12 against Thun, where he played the entire game.
A week later, he scored his first league goal, the second goal in the 2-0 home win against Lausanne-Sport. Salah scored his first UEFA Europa League goal in the quarter-finals on April 11, 2013, as Basel progressed to the semi-finals with a 4-1 penalty shootout win over Tottenham Hotspur after a 4-4 aggregate score. In the semi-final on May 2, Salah scored a goal away against Chelsea, although Basel were beaten with an overall score of 5-2. Despite the late disappointment in Europe, Basel won the Swiss Super League title in 2012-13 and finished second in the Swiss Cup.
Before the 2013-14 Swiss Super League season, Salah was a member of the Basel team that won the Uhrencup 2013. Salah made his first league appearance of the season against Aarau on July 13, 2013. A month later, he scored his first Champions League goal against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the third qualifying round. Salah was involved in a major controversy after the game, seemingly avoiding shaking hands with the players of the Israeli club in both games. He scored two goals against Bulgarian champions PFC Ludogorets Razgrad in the playoff round. On September 18, 2013, Salah scored the equalizing goal against Chelsea in the 2-1 away win in the group stage. In the return leg on November 26 at St. Jakob-Park, Salah scored the winning goal as Basel beat Chelsea for the second time with a 1-0 home win. However, he couldn’t prevent Basel from being eliminated in the group stage. On the national level, Salah continued his performance. With 4 goals in 18 games, including a brace against title contenders Young Boys, he helped Basel win their fifth consecutive league title.
On January 23, 2014, it was announced that Salah would leave Basel. During his time at the club, Salah played a total of 95 games for Basel and scored a total of 21 goals. Of these, 47 were in the Swiss Super League, six in the Swiss Cup, 26 in UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League), and 16 were friendly matches. He scored nine goals in the domestic league, four in the cup, seven in European cup games, and the others were scored during the trial matches.
2014: Entry into the first-team squad
On January 23, 2014, Premier League club Chelsea announced that a deal had been agreed with Basel to sign Salah for a reported fee of around £11 million. Three days later, the transfer was completed, making him the first Egyptian to sign for the London-based club. Liverpool had shown interest in Salah and made an offer of £11 million but were beaten to his signature by Chelsea. On February 8, Salah made his debut for Chelsea in the Premier League, coming on as a substitute in the 3-0 win against Newcastle United. Seven games later, on March 22, Salah scored his first goal for Chelsea against Arsenal in the London Derby, coming on as a substitute for Oscar in a match that ended as a 6-0 home win. Then, on April 5, Salah opened the scoring and later won a penalty and assisted the third goal in Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Stoke City.