May be you did, but may be you didn’t – so have a read and be sure about whether you did know these facts or not…
When he was coming up through the ranks, many labelled him as the Egyptian Messi. Pfft. He is not: Lionel Messi is the Argentine Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian has been in wonderful form so far this season and has wowed the Premier League fans with his brilliance.
It makes me wonder as to how Chelsea fans are reacting to his form right now. The way Jose Mourinho treated him was strange, to say the least. And now, the Portuguese’s impatience and tunnel vision have robbed Chelsea of a fantastic player who could have formed a devastating partnership with Alvaro Morata and Eden Hazard.
Nevertheless, the Blues’ loss is the Reds’ gain as Merseyside has been bestowed with a player of elite-level skills and technique. With so much limelight on this magician, here are 5 things you probably didn’t know about him:
Open to all!
Remember some days ago, Lionel Messi hosted his wedding in Argentina and the whole place was surrounded by security forces in order to not let strangers intrude? Well, for starters, stop calling Salah as the Egyptian Messi because he is not – he kept the doors of his wedding event open for everyone to visit.
Yes, you read that right. Salah got married to his sweetheart, Magi, in 2013 and invited his entire village to the wedding.
Thousands of people attended his wedding, including famous Egyptians singers as well, who also took pleasure in signing at the ceremony.
Makka
Mohamed Salah is a devout Muslim and always bows down to the Almighty after scoring a goal. Indeed, his religiousness can be found out in fact that he has named his daughter Makka, after the Holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s an interesting story attached to the name: Magi came up with the name and Salah liked it instantly and spelt it as Mecca. However, he soon changed it to Makka so that it could be distinguishable from the worldwide gambling casino, ‘Mecca Bingo’.
Since gambling is prohibited in Islam, it was understandable as to why the Egyptian forward altered the spelling of his daughter’s name a little. And as is the case in majority, Makka is her father’s daughter and apparently connects much better to him than Magi.
The controversy
Salah was criticised for this (via Egypt Independent)
The cultural differences around the world often makes it hard for people to escape their acts without results.
So when a lady presenter kissed the former Roma man on his cheeks after being awarded the Swiss League Player of the Year, he was heavily criticised for it back home in Egypt. Given that the country is quite conservative in its nature, it was actually something Salah could have foreseen.
Of the incident, Salah said: “They have spoiled my joy. They forgot the prize and concentrated on the lady kissing me.
“Anywhere I go here in Switzerland, people applaud me while my native fans criticize me,” he added. Certainly, he had a point. Also, it was the presenter who approached him for the kiss and it would have completely rude if he blocked her like that in front of everyone.
Military
There are some countries in the world where one has to fulfil an obligation of serving the military – and Egypt is one of those countries. However, one could be exempt from the program should he opt to choose education instead – and Salah was on the latter list as he had to play football.
But at one point, his career at Chelsea was in jeopardy after it was revealed that he was not a part of the education program that allowed him to live and play in the United Kingdom. The news came as a shock for Salah, who actually had a taste of the military program in his younger days.
However, the country’s national team director, Ahmed Hassan, intervened and got the issue fixed, helping Salah to once again be enlisted in the education program and relieving him of his military obligations.
And we can’t thank Ahmed Hassan enough for that!
Fastest player
Mo Salah is very, very quick – just ask Raphael Varane. When Real Madrid took on Roma in the Champions League, Salah constantly gave the Frenchman problems with his pace. Now, Varane himself is a very fast player, but he was often seen catching shadows when chasing the former Basel star.
Indeed, 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 kilometres-per-hour. Now, this might not sound much, but average means that his collective movements in a game was 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.
