Mohamed Salah is a gifted professional footballer from Egypt. He plays forward for Liverpool Premier League Club and now for Egyptian national team to help his country to get the FIFA world cup since 1990. He was born in Gharbia Egypt on 15th June 1992. Salah is the talk of the football world after his outstanding playing skill in the Premier League getting him many awards and voted BBC African Footballer of the Year for 2017.
1. Having passion and holding onto it is the key to success, using that passion takes one to greater heights. Mohamed Salah had the desire in football since he was a little child at the age of around eight years. He could watch Champions League, always wanted to be like the best players of Liverpool of that time. When playing football with other kids from the neighborhood, Salah could assume he was as good as was Zidane or Brazilian Ronaldo. After some years, he joined a football club in Basyoun for training, managing both school work and football was hectic but he still thrived through.
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2. Salah realized that he could make football to be his career at the age of sixteen when he joined the Arab contractors in Cairo, where he trained five times a week. He tried his best hoping that one-day things will work out and get a chance to join the first team. Fortunately, he got his chance to join the first team, that's when he knew he could become someone special in the football world.
3. Although he faced a lot of pressures, Mohamed managed to enter the national team at the age of nineteen and made a debut for His country Egypt in September 2011 which was a dream coming to a reality. Most players in the national football teams were around the age of late twenties, for Salah he was the youngest player in the national team, could not believe that was in the group because it was too early.
4. On November 2011, he managed to strike his first goal for his country at the age of nineteen, and it was unbelievable to many due to his young age. It was a match against Niger, and since then he became the famous football player in his country. He later took part in thirty-eight champion’s league matches and scored a total of eleven goals that enabled him to be signed into a four-year contract by Swiss side Basel in the year 2012.
5. He is the Egyptian first player to join Chelsea on 23rd January 2014 with a fee of approximately £ 11 million, and he also is the first Liverpool's Egyptian player to transfer for a long-term contract to the Reds with a payment of € 42 million, later increased to € 50 million.
6. He took part in Africa U-20 Cup of Nations where he won a bronze medal. In 2012, Confederation African Football (CAF) awarded Salah as the most promising African Talent after participating in FIFA U-20 World cup and Summer Olympics of the year 2012. In the CAF qualification, he helped his team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2018. In Africa, selected him in the African Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament and CAF team of the year.
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7. On his wedding day in Argentina in 2013, marrying his long-term girlfriend Magi Mohamed, he invited the whole village. Many people attended the wedding; he even asked Egyptian singers to entertain the people. This welcoming showed how gold-hearted he is welcoming his people and keeping the doors open for his fans to attend instead of inviting a limited number of guests with security guards placed to secure the wedding ceremony.
8. He is a very religious man, devoted to his Muslim religion and this is shown by how he always bows down to thank the Almighty every time he scores a goal, at any match he plays. An interesting part is, he named his Daughter Mecca Mohammed after the Holy site in Saudi Arabia called Mecca but later changed the name to Makkah to distinguish it from the name Mecca Bingo which is the world biggest gambling Casino.
9. He was to take part in serving his country Egypt as military, to fulfill the norm in their country that one has to take part in, after coming back home from abroad on finishing his education program. Mohamed had to serve the military service of their country for like one or more years, then luckily the Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, Minister of Higher Education and Shawky Gharib, the Egyptian national manager, intervened and decided to free him from his federal responsibility and focus on football.
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10. In December 2017, his family got robbed, Mohamed Salah begged his father to drop charges against the thief who got caught two days later, he gave the thief money to help him build and better his life, and he went further to finding him a job, something many cannot do to one who offends the family. He stated in some of his interviews that all he wants is for every individual to have a chance to better themselves.
11. When it comes to disciplinary records, Mohamed Salah is ranked to have the best disciplinary record in the Premier League. He has not been sent off, given a yellow card, booked for his actions. For instance, when playing at Watford, he scored four in the 5-0 drubbing, and he did not jump to his fans or even remove his shirt as most players do after scoring such, he has only received one yellow card in the 41 appearances the current club season. His discipline can explain why he easily copes with the members of the teams he joins and catches up with them so quickly and for others to catch up with him.
12. The footballer star is a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Khaled El Nabawy actor in the famous Mission Impossible and Fare Game Hollywood movies and has even been seen taking pictures with Khaled El
Nabawy.
13. He is an active member of social media, Facebook, Instagram and also twitter where he gets in touch with his fans and posts pictures of himself and family. In May 2018 he posted on Facebook assuring his fans that he will make them proud in Russia despite the odds, appreciating the support and love they give him as it gives him the strength he needs. He uses it to bring a positive impact to the people.
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14. He learns his skills through experience, learning from different areas to become competent in his profession and career. When he was young at the age of 18 and 19 he used to play FIFA for Liverpool on the play station, he also says Salah learned a lot of things from Chelsea where he had played for one year before joining other teams. Apart from the playing experience he gained, he learned how to cope with other members of the group, improve his character and to have a good relationship with them.
15. Due to his impressive performances, Mohamed Salah was invited to join Swiss Football Club, and then later he moved to Chelsea. Unfortunately they did appreciate his playing techniques; instead, they loaned him out to Italian football club Fiorentina. Later joined AS Roma, where to his advantage he learned many tactics and skills that enabled him to be signed up by Liverpool in the year 2017, and there he became the second highest goal scorer in the club in just one season.
16. Apart from watching football, Mohamed Salah likes watching Television programs with his family when he is at home, comedy movies that make him laugh, YouTube videos that inspire him to become a better person and reading books to relax his mind.
17. He has a helping hand, dedicated to better his home village Nile Delta. In his home place, he works to help the poor, funds the Mo Salah’s Charity Foundation to support the villagers who are less privileged, provision of foodstuffs and recognized as the first person to provide the first ambulance unit in their town. He is funding the construction of a hospital and girls’ school in his hometown to reduce the rate at which the people are traveling out of town to search for this facilities. He gave donations to Tanta University Hospital for the purchase of medical equipment.
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18. Mohamed Salah is one of the fastest football players as for the 2013-2014 season Premier League statistics with an average top speed of 20.7 kilometer-per-hour, EA Sports upgraded his stats and awarded as the player of March 2018 with a pace of 99. Apart from the speed rate, he is also known for his dribbling and ball control skills as he beats his opponents for more attractive opportunities for the team.
19. He lives a simple and humble life, and he is polite and when it comes to giving responses to questions on interviews he is very open. His twitter post, portrays his simplicity, that he does not have tattoos, does not change hairstyles or know how to dance, all he wants is to play football. Mourinho acknowledged him upon signing for Chelsea as one with a humble personality on the pitch and enthusiastic. Ranked as the most disciplined player in the premier league, shows his humility and many admire his character.
20. He is nicknamed The Egyptian king by the Liverpool supporters especially those back home because of the support to people in his country, also named as The Pharaoh. Match of the Day pundit Mark Lawrenson named him Merlin saying he is like a little magician due to his tactics portrayed in the game and the impact on the game to people.
21. He paid tribute to the victims of Port Said disaster, a football stadium in Egypt that killed 74 people and others getting life-threatening injuries. He paid tribute by wearing t-shirt number 74 during the loan spell from Chelsea at Fiorentina three years later, something he chose to do in memory of his fans that died, without being instructed to do.
22. He was a fan of the late Muhammad Ali who was a professional boxer in America and died at the age of 74 in June 2016. He is even seen wearing Muhammad Ali style after unsuccessful Chelsea spell.
23. In Britain, Mohamed Ali is the representative of the Muslim religion. Back in Egypt, his image minted in Ramadan lanterns. His rise as a footballer has been noticed even by Muslim who are non-soccer changing people’s perception of the Muslims and the Arabs in different parts of the world. He is now the most visible Muslim, setting an example to many even as he raises his index finger up in the field giving thanks to the Almighty.
24. Mohamed Salah participated in the Anti-drug. You are stronger than drugs’ campaign in Egypt due to his massive influence especially to the youths. He appeared in the video prohibiting the use of all sorts of abusive drugs, and the video got a million views after being posted in the social media. The campaign was also calling on the hotline used in preventing drug use to be increased to 400% during the three days.
25. Most football players get songs from their fans after a good performance in the field. Many songs have been created for Mohamed Salah to serenade his performance, from his fans. On February 2018, His fans sang for him to the tune of Dodgy's 1996 hit single Good enough,' many calling it "the precursor for the world peace."
26. British Museum displayed Mohamed Salah's alongside objects obtained from the Ancient artifacts to celebrate him for being the top scorer in the Premier League, with a total score of 32-goals for Liverpool. The move was later disagreed by the Head of archeologists in the Ministry of Archeology Magdy Shaker saying that it showed disrespect to the great Egyptian history then the British Museum decided to take them to the Modern Egypt Exhibition.
The Important Take Away
Mohamed Salah inspires many people not only from his religion or his footballer fans but also to every person who desires to succeed in life, to overcome obstacles faced to achieve their goals. From nothing he has become the talk of football, his hard work and passion have taken him to stratospheric heights in his career, his simplicity and humility have propelled his popularity. Despite his fame, Salah is a philanthropist supporting development in his country, uniting his people, the Muslim and the Arabs. People's dedication in his country is evident in their daily activities.