An Egyptian security officer has revealed the extremes to which Mohamed Salah’s admirers will go in order to catch a sight of the Liverpool player.
Salah has established himself as a Liverpool legend, ranking fifth on the Reds’ all-time list of leading goal scorers, and he shows no signs of slowing down.
He enjoys enormous popularity and is revered throughout the Arabic-speaking globe. Particularly in Egypt, where he gets mobbed, this is the situation.
Karim Abdou, Salah’s agent when he represented the national team, stated to the 5ASide Podcast:
“He is a ghost, he cannot be seen.
“One time, he went to pray in a mosque. Nobody knew where he lived and it was late and somebody followed him. He [the person following] put in the community WhatsApp group, ‘Mo Salah lives in that address’.
“I walked after him, there was 20,000 people showed up to his house after five minutes. These 20,000 were just people who lived in the community.
“The rest of the people, when they heard on social media and TV, they were just driving to go to Salah’s house.”
Salah’s popularity off the pitch has grown due in part to Liverpool’s success on it.
Abdou added : “When he won the Champions League, that was the most crazy time because I was supposed to be with him, but he took an extra few days off, it was Eid, our holiday, and he went to his home base.
“That prayer, there is thousands of people in the street because it is like Christmas here, it’s called Eid in Egypt.
“When he came, he was supposed to go and pray in the street with everybody, his childhood friends, and he just won the Champion League so everyone wants to take pictures with him, wants to celebrate.
“Every single Egyptian media, TV, newspaper, camera, it was like the final of the World Cup. They were lining up in front of his house.”
“At the same time, I was at a hotel with the Egyptian national team. He [Salah] was supposed to finish the two days off and come there.
“Out of nowhere, he was inside the house and could not even open the door. They tried to escape him out the back door, but they couldn’t.”
Security concerns come along with success and notoriety. One of the most recognisable players in all of football is Salah.
“All gifts have to be scanned,” Abdou explained. “We don’t accept gifts, but sometimes if I take them from people they have to be scanned. You never know what is in the gift. It could make him sick or kill him, you don’t know.”
Salah has been making use of part of the Egyptian’s unimaginable wealth as a result of his accomplishment.
Abdou revealed: “Salah helped the community, he paid millions and millions for sick people. He bought ambulance for the cities.
“He helped people who were short of money to get married. If somebody needs surgery, somebody has struggles, somebody has bills.”
It is very evident that Salah is a grounded individual despite his accomplishments. Quite the legend.