Former Manchester City defender Richards played with Salah in Italy at Fiorentina.
Richards said: "Salah, we talk about him so many times – he's breathtaking. When I say he's breathtaking it's not because he has a great game all the time, but he scores, he's clinical and he punishes you all the time.
"I remember when I was at Fiorentina with him, he always said his dream was to play for Liverpool and he's living out his dream now and he's doing amazingly well."
Salah told Sky Sports in 2023 of his former Viola teammate: "Oh my God, one of the craziest guys I've ever met.
"As a person, it's hard to describe because we were very close and he's really such a nice guy. My family were in London and he was alone and we would always go for coffee. I didn't have a car, he picked me up always before training and after training to drop me home.
"He was my driver at the time! And we had such a nice time. He pretended his Italian was better but everybody knows it was not! But he's such a great guy and we were very close and we just stayed in touch."