Ex-Roma president Pallotta explains selling Salah, Alisson to Liverpool | OneFootball

Former Roma president James Pallotta says they were forced into selling the likes of Liverpool pair Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker during his time in charge.

Salah moved to Merseyside from the Serie A club in the summer of 2017 and has gone on to have a stellar career with the team so far.

Liverpool moved to sign goalkeeper Alisson from Roma a year later and both have played an integral part in the Reds' success in the last couple of years.

“I look at the team we had put together and, frankly, I think that if it weren't for Financial Fair Play that forced us to have to sell players, Roma would be in first place today," he said during an interview with SiriusXM.

“Over the years we have had Salah, Alisson, Nainggolan, Dzeko, Pjanic, Strootman, Paredes, Emerson Palmieri, Manolas, Benatia, Marquinhos.

“No team apart from Juventus won the Scudetto [title] from 2012 to 2020. We finished second three times and we reached the Champions League semi-finals. It's probably a better trend than any other Juve rival.

“The club that we bought in 2011 was very different from the one that we sold.

“We inherited a club with huge debts, low revenues. It was bankrupt. I don't care about what previous owners would say.

“We negotiated the purchase with Unicredit and if I am dealing with a bank, it means that the bank owns the club."