Top facts you need to know about Mohamed Salah
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly, born in Gharbia Egypt on 15th June 1992, is the talk of the football world as his magical performances throughout the season got him many awards. In 2017, he was named the ‘African Footballer of the Year’ after scoring a ton of goals.
The Premier League Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner finished the campaign with a surprising 32 league goals for the Reds, including one astounding goal against Brighton on the last day of the season.
Plenty of airtime has been dedicated to the Egyptian, who even had a Channel 4 documentary broadcasted about his success; however, there are still plenty of things about the forward that a lot of people aren’t aware of.
Salah’s nicknames
The most interesting fact about Salah is that he has several nicknames in both Egypt and the UK. Salah is fondly known as ‘The Pharaoh,’ while few call him ‘The Egyptian Messi.’ Moreover, Liverpool fans call Salah ‘The Egyptian King.’ Some other nicknames are Muslim Messi, Pyramid Pele, Desert Dalglish, Cairo Cristiano, Halal Hazard, Ramadan Robben, Sand Suarez, and Bearded Maradona!
Salah’s favorite food
Salah loves to eat and when in Egypt, he makes sure the first thing he does is to eat Kushari, a traditional dish of Egyptian cuisine consisting of a base of rice, lentils, and pasta mixed together with garlic vinegar and a spiced tomato sauce. It is then topped with crispy fried onions and chickpeas!
"When I go back to Egypt, I call my friend from the airport to buy Kushari for us to eat in the car. I pull my hoodie over my head, jump into the car and then I’m eating it straight away," Salah said.
Salah’s favorite actors
Salah likes to watch movies and is a huge fan of Leonardo Dicaprio and Egyptian actor Khaled El Nabawy. He probably wants a career in movies after his retirement!
Moreover, he is a fan of the American professional boxer, activist, and philanthropist, Muhammad Ali Clay. Like Ali, he keeps fighting back against all the odds and has emerged incredibly in the football world. It appears that the commitment to greatness is a feature they both have in common.
Young Salah had to make a nine-hour round journey from his hometown to Cairo, using 10 different buses in total, in order to get to training. He did this five days a week for almost four years!
Open Wedding
As one of the most prominent footballers ever, Salah married his long-term girlfriend Magi Mohamed, inviting the entire village to his wedding party. Many people joined the couple to celebrate their special day; he even asked Egyptian singers to entertain the people.
This invitation 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.
Makkah
Salah is a very religious man, devoted to his Muslim religion and this is shown by how he always bows down to thank God every time he scores a goal at any match he plays. He also 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’s biggest gambling Casino!
Controversial award
Salah was named as the Swiss League Player of the Year while he was at FC Basel. At the awards show, the hostess of the event kissed Salah to congratulate him. The forward was heavily criticized on social networking sites by his Egyptian fans.
"They have spoiled my joy," Salah told to reporters. "They forgot the prize and concentrated on the lady kissing me."
Saleh added, "Anywhere I go here in Switzerland people applaud, while my native fans criticize me."
Elections
In the 2018 presidential elections in Egypt, more than one million people crossed out the names of the two candidates Sisi and Moussa to cast their ballot for Mohamed Salah and wrote Salah’s name on their ballot paper. Had they been counted as legal votes, Salah would have finished in second place in the electoral race!
Compassion to a thief
In December 2017, his family got robbed when he was away playing in a game. Egyptian police caught the thief a couple of days later. His father wanted to press charges but Salah convinced his Dad not to press charges. Instead, Salah gave the thief some money and tried to help find him a job in order to turn his life around.
Salah’s salary and net worth
The forward who has spent his youth career with Ittihad Basyoun, Othmason Tanta, and El Mokawloon has a net worth of $70 million.
Mo Salah joined El Mokawloon's senior team from 2010 to 2012 where he scored 11 goals in 38 appearances. He played for Basel from 2012 to 2014 and scored 9 goals in 47 games.
Salah played for Chelsea from 2014 to 2016 and was loaned to Fiorentina in 2015 and Roma from 2015 to 2016. He joined Roma full time from 2016 to 2017 and scored 15 goals in 31 caps.
Salah joined Liverpool in 2017 and scored more goals there than with any other club. He has also represented Egypt at the under-20, under-23, and senior levels.
Salah has won several awards including the Premier League Player of the Month. He finished 3rd for the Best FIFA Men's Player in 2018 and has set several records.
In July 2018 Mohamed signed a 5-year deal with Liverpool that pays $15 million per year. With endorsements, he easily earns $25-30 million per year.
Salah is a quick player
When Real Madrid took on Roma in the Champions League, Salah constantly gave the Frenchman problems with his pace. Although Varane is a very fast player, he was often seen catching shadows when chasing the former Basel star.
According to the Premier League statistics for the 2013-14 season, the former Fiorentina wizard was the quickest player in the league with an average top speed of 20.7 kilometers-per-hour. Now, this might not sound much, but the average means that his collective movements in a game were used to make the calculation.
It means that it took into consideration the time he took standing idle or jogging as well, so that is pretty impressive. Pretty sure that Barry Allen isn’t the fastest man alive, it could just be Mohamed Salah.
The best disciplinary record in the Premier League
Salah’s moral virtues extend onto the pitch too. In 31 league games, he has committed only 14 fouls and has not been booked or sent off even once. This, however, might have something to do with him being too quick for others to catch up.
Salah is a philanthropist
Mo Salah donates a lot of his money to projects in his home village of Nagrig. The forward has invested money into building a new school in the area and he also helped kit out the region’s hospital with the latest medical equipment. Salah also donated $681,500 to a Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo so they could buy a bone marrow transplant machine.
After Salah scored the penalty that saw Egypt qualify for this summer’s World Cup, the governor of Gharbiya renamed the forward’s former school the ‘Mohamed Salah Industrial High School’.
Mohamed Salah has inspired many people not just his football fans but every person who desires to succeed in life to overcome obstacles faced and to achieve their goals.
From nothing, he has become the talk of football; his hard work, passion, and dedication have taken him to stratospheric heights in his career, and his simplicity and humility have propelled his popularity.
