From Egyptian village to best player in England, Salah is a national idol

Tanta (Egypt) (AFP) – Deep in Egypt’s Nile Delta region, the children of Nagrig village have a clear goal in life: they want to become football stars like Mohamed Salah, England’s top scorer and Africa’s top player.

Salah, who hails from their village, has been a Premier League sensation since joining Liverpool — setting a new Premier League score in a 38-game campaign with 32 goals.

The Premier League’s top scorer this season, Salah, 25, grabbed the Golden Boot, and has won the Professional Footballers’ Association Player of the Year voted for by his fellow players.

But a shoulder injury sustained in the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid has left Egyptians praying their star forward will be fit for the country’s first World Cup appearance in 28 years.

Salah cemented his status as a national hero with his prominent role in qualifying and the team’s coach, Argentinian Hector Cuper, said the Pharaohs are banking on him in Russia.

Salah’s presence in the national team, fitness permitting, fulfils two objectives, said sports analyst Yasser Ayoub.

“The first is his personal performance and the goals he can score, and the second is that his presence provides the team an opportunity because the opposing teams assign players to monitor Salah… With Salah on the pitch, the other teams will be as if they’re missing players,” explains Ayoub.

Aware that his success has become an inspiration for children in Egypt and Africa, Salah addressed them in his acceptance speech when he won the African player of the year accolade in January, telling them: “Never stop dreaming, never stop believing.”

In Nagrig as well as in Basyoun, the closest town, the youth centres were renamed after the Egyptian star.

While the house of the player’s father, Salah Ghali, resembles others in the village, it was quieter: no-one was looking out of an open window, and no clothes hung from the house.

The village has been the focus of huge media interest as Salah has risen to stardom, but family members at his house in Nagrig refused to talk to reporters “out of respect for his wishes”.

– Gruelling daily journey –

Salah’s journey, figuratively as well as literally, was anything but easy.

“His talent clearly showed from the beginning,” said Ghamri Abdel-Hameed el-Saadani, who was the juniors coach at the Nagrig Youth Centre, where Salah started training at the age of eight.

The post From Egyptian village to best player in England, Salah is a national idol appeared first on World Soccer Talk.

from World Soccer Talk https://ift.tt/2L2TGns