Five years ago, if someone asked, “Who is Mohamed Salah?”, there would only be a few people who could answer correctly. But now Mohamed Salah is known to almost everyone who follows European football. That’s because of the rise in the footballing career of Salah. He has become one of the finest forwards of the world in recent years.

Childhood of Salah

It was 15th May 1992 when Salah was born in the village of Nagrig in Egypt. His interests lay more in sports than in academics and this was a cause of concern. Their idea of Salah was that he would be a bright student with a steady job in the future. But nothing could keep Salah out of football. He carried on with both football & studies, but the game of football was the winner every day of the week. The village streets were always full of children playing football and Salah was a regular face there. He watched UEFA Champions League matches at that time and made Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, Ronaldo Lima his idols.

Salah took part in many local tournaments. Pepsi League was one of them. It was held in Tanta town which was a 30-minute distance from the village Nagrig. At that tournament Salah’s performance amazed a scout of Cairo based club ‘El Mokawloon’. The club offered him a contract and Salah agreed. Salah joined El Mokawloon’s academy. But the club was too far from Nagrig, so when he went to the training camp he had to change the bus five times. The busy schedule & long journey was tiring and he couldn’t continue playing with his village friends. Salah was growing up with the dream of becoming a footballer.

Entry to the European Football

In May 2010 Salah started his career in the senior team. During the early days, he was starting from the bench. Slowly Salah improved & got chances in the starting line-up. But in 2012, because of extreme chaos, the league was postponed & that’s when Salah came to Europe. The same year, in the month of April Salah joined FC Basel signing a 4-year contract.

After spending two years at Basel, Salah attracted the attention of Chelsea FC and in January, 2014 he joined the English club. In February, he made his debut against Newcastle United. After a few days, Salah had to go back to Egypt for the mandatory military training. But the authority marked him as a star of the sports field and gave him the chance to go back to London without training. Salah was starved of game-time at Chelsea to display his talents. In February 2015, Salah went to Fiorentina on loan. After Fiorentina Salah played for Roma and signed a permanent deal with them. With 15 goals Salah became their highest goal scorer which attracted the attention of a lot of European clubs. In June 2017, Salah left Italy and came back to England. This time in the red of Liverpool, to become the first-ever Egyptian to play for the ‘All Reds’.

Turning point of Salah – English Premier League giant Liverpool transfer

The Liverpool move was the turning point of Salah’s career. He had a stellar debut season with the club breaking records after records and became a fan-favorite. He scored 44 goals in the first season to become only the second premier league player to score 40+ goals in a single season (the first one since Cristiano Ronaldo). Salah became the first African to be the Premier League top scorer and the first Egyptian to score a premier league hat-trick and to play in the Champions League Final. Undoubtedly the standout player in England in that season. But that season the Champions League final ended in tears for Salah. But in the following season, he would go on to win the Champions League with Liverpool. The fans loved him & and also gave him his own chants………

Mosalah Mosalah Mosalah

Running down the wing

Salaaahhhh la la la la

The Egyptian king…

Hope of Egypt, The King

Salah became very popular to the people of Egypt. Salah scored from the penalty spot and took Egypt to the World Cup, after 28 years. To Egyptians the name Salah became synonymous with Football. Even in the presidential election of Egypt more than 1 million people wrote the name of Salah to cast him as the president where he was not even a candidate!

Salah’s form shows no sign of decline and he continues to be a fan-favorite as he garners praise in the biggest of stages.