In the Nile Delta village of Nagrig, residents love local son Mohamed Salah from a distance, with ructions between the Egyptian super striker and long-time English club Liverpool doing little to dim his lustre at home.
“Thanks to him I can dream,” 16-year-old Mohamed Ahmed told AFP as he stepped onto a pitch at the Nagrig sports complex where Salah first honed his talents before making his improbable journey to some of football’s most dizzying heights.
“I’m so happy to play here,” Ahmed said, referring to the complex renamed in Salah’s honour, where young people from the village and beyond come to bask in the footballer’s legend, greeted by a mural of the star as they enter.
That image of Salah, triumphant in the red strip of his Merseyside team, is as close as many will get to the hometown icon in Nagrig where, while everyone knows his name, few get the chance to meet him. Elsewhere in the village there is little trace of him.
“When he comes, it’s at night so that no one sees him,” said Asma, a young student who gave only her first name.
The 33-year-old Egypt international spoke out against Liverpool manager Arne Slot after being left as an unused substitute against Leeds last week.
Dropped from Liverpool’s squad for their Champions League tie at Inter Milan on Tuesday, Salah has been subsequently linked to a move to the lucrative Saudi Pro League.
– ‘Charitable commitment’ –
Despite the off-pitch drama, Roshdy Gaber, head of security at the sports complex, said Salah was “an icon for young people” and a “determined lad who has worked hard to get where he is today”.
Having left Nagrig at 14 to join a club in Cairo before moving to Europe, where he played for Basel, Chelsea, Fiorentina and Roma before Liverpool, Salah, nicknamed the “Pharaoh”, has not forgotten his roots.
Mohamed Ahmed’s father, Ahmed Ali said the football youth centre was the “greatest proof” of Salah’s “charitable commitment”.
“Our children don’t have to go to other villages to play football,” explained the 45-year-old factory worker who shares his son’s love of football.
Salah, who has used prayer in his pitch celebrations and has spoken frequently of his Muslim faith, has funded the construction of a religious institute for boys and girls in Nagrig, costing over 17 million Egyptian pounds ($350,000).
Every month, his charitable foundation donates EGP 50,000 to orphans, widows and divorced women in the village.
A local official, who asked not to be identified, said Salah was “a great source of pride” for the village and the football star had remained “the polite and unassuming young man we knew”.
The official did question whether the two-time African Ballon d’Or winner, who earns a weekly salary of £400,000 ($535,000), could have given more of his wealth back to the community.
-‘Exaggerated’-
“Unfortunately, many stories have been exaggerated,” the official said referring to the financial support provided, by Salah.
Ali, who makes roughly $100 a month at the factory where he works, similarly believes Salah could have given more back.
“I know farmers who are more generous,” he said.
Surrounded by the fields of the fertile Nile Delta, growing crops including onions, jasmine and rice, the village of 20,000 inhabitants, 120 kilometres northwest of Cairo struggles under the burden of ailing infrastructure.
In early December, rainwater had flooded Nagrig’s potholed streets and players making their way to the sports complex had to abandon their bus and complete the journey by foot.
Trudging through the mud, boots in hand, the players picked their way through flowing water to play.
Despite his misgivings, the local official said Salah had “breathed new life into his village, but also into his country, the Arab world and even Africa”.
“It will be a long time before we see another Mohamed Salah,” he added.
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© Agence France-Presse
