CAIRO: Patriotic statements, flashy commercials and an anti-drug campaign: Mohamed Salah’s dazzling displays for Liverpool have taken the football world by storm, and on his home turf in Egypt seemingly everyone wants a piece of him.
Salah has shot to stardom thanks to his goal-scoring exploits in England and Europe, and senior Egyptian officials increasingly refer to the player — although he has carefully steered clear of politics.
Last month foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid went so far as to call him “an icon of Egypt’s soft power.”
Abu Zeid made the comment on Twitter after Salah scored a brace and set up two more goals as Liverpool beat AS Roma 5-2 in the Champions League semifinal first leg at Anfield last week.
The second leg takes place on Wednesday night in the Italian capital.
The remarkable game prompted President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to also congratulate the flying forward.
“What he has accomplished calls for pride and affirms Egyptians’ capabilities in all fields... Proud of him every Egyptian who holds Egypt’s name high,” El-Sisi tweeted.
Salah the “Pharaoh” represents an opportunity for the country to improve its image internationally after years of turmoil in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
The fact that “an athlete at that level penetrates the media wall and becomes a face known globally inevitably reflects... on his home country,” said Pascal Boniface, director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
From the modest village of Nagrig in the Nile Delta, Salah has catapulted to worldwide fame since his arrival last summer in England from AS Roma in a transfer deal worth €42 million ($50.39 million).
Awards have since piled up, leading to talk of him challenging Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the 2018 Ballon d’Or, given to the world’s best player.
On April 22, Salah scooped the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year for the 2017-18 Premier League season.
Salah also became a national hero for his leading role in helping Egypt to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.
The competition kicks off on June 14 in Russia, and the eyes of all Egyptians are expected to be on him.
But Boniface remains skeptical of how successful attempts would be to use Salah politically on the international stage.
Such attempts would be “very exposed” and similar “to the old ways of propaganda,” he said.
On the other hand, the prodigy can give a significant boost to Egyptians’ “national self esteem,” he said.
In Egypt, images of President El-Sisi abound in public, with Salah the only other person coming close to having as many appear on advertising billboards, television screens and online.
Pictured alone or alongside his Egyptian or Liverpool teammates, Salah features prominently in adverts for a mobile telecoms company, a brand of soda or a local bank.
At the same time, he has publicly supported a campaign by the National Council for Women promoting gender equality, and appears in a government video for an anti-drug campaign.
The “You’re Stronger Than Drugs” campaign has increased the number of calls to the anti-drugs help line, according to the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
Efforts to turn such a big star into a symbol of soft power are not new, said Gamal Abdel-Gawad, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
The greatest such symbol in Egypt remains Umm Kalthoum, the undisputed queen of Arab song, more than four decades after her death, he said.
But Salah’s overexposure could also now be a source of conflict.
An image rights controversy over the past few days has seen Salah lash out at Egyptian football authorities, causing a uproar on Twitter among his 5.36 million followers.
The dispute has centered on an advertising campaign by the national team’s main sponsor, Telecom Egypt’s mobile arm WE, which has relied heavily on photos of Salah, who has his own contract with global telecom giant Vodafone.
On Sunday, Salah signalled his growing frustration by tweeting “unfortunately the way it is being dealt with is very insulting. I was hoping the interaction would be classier than this.”
But a few hours later, after the issue trended on Twitter, he announced it was being resolved, while thanking his fans for their “unreal” support.
On his home turf in Egypt, everyone wants piece of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah
On his home turf in Egypt, everyone wants piece of Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah
- Star forward is 'an icon of Egypt’s soft power'
- Salah comes from the modest village of Nagrig in the Nile Delta
Young future stars of Saudi golf enjoy a moment alongside the big names at LIV Golf Riyadh
- Participants in ROSHN Rising Stars program to develop golfing talent in the Kingdom play friendly competition at Riyadh Golf Club before round 3 of the season opener tees off
- ‘Golf is such a fundamental sport for development … The values of golf can be correlated to the values of society: confidence, resilience and integrity,’ says LIV Golf’s Jake Jones
RIYADH: While much of the spotlight during LIV Golf’s 2026 season opener in Riyadh this week has of course been on the return of some of the sport’s biggest names for the new campaign, a new generation of Saudi golfers is also quietly taking its own first steps into the game.
Participants in the ROSHN Rising Stars program, an initiative designed to introduce and develop young golfing talent across the Kingdom, gathered at Riyadh Golf Club on Friday afternoon for a friendly competition a few hours before the third round of the main event teed off under the lights.
“The real focus is getting golf into the lives of young people in the Kingdom,” Jake Jones, LIV Golf’s senior vice president of impact and sustainability told Arab News as the young golfers took to the course under cloudy skies.
“We wanted to do something a little bit different, something sustained, with a long-term outcome, and that’s how this program was created.”
The program runs for 20 weeks, during which the participants receive weekly coaching and instruction sessions at Riyadh Golf Club from Golf Saudi professionals.
“This takes them from never having held a golf club before to reaching a point where they’ve now played in a competition,” Jones said.
The fact that the LIV Golf season opens in Riyadh provides another key benefit for the participants, as they get to experience the professional game up close, and this access to world-class players and events forms a key part of their journey.
“We give them exposure to our LIV Golf events, here and internationally,” Jones added.
Beyond this, and teaching people how to play the game, the program offers participants insights into the wider aspects of the world of golf, including career opportunities.
“They’ve had behind-the-scenes tours, pitch-and-putt sessions, long-drive competitions and visits to places like the media center,” Jones said. “It’s about showing them what it’s like not just to play golf, but work in the sport as well.”
Friday’s event in Riyadh marked the conclusion of the 20-week program for its participants.
“Today is really the celebration point,” Jones said. “We’re at the graduation phase of this journey, where they’ll compete in a three-hole challenge. We then crown a winner and celebrate with them back at the ROSHN Fan Village.”
As golf continues to grow in popularity in the region, Jones believes initiatives such as Rising Stars will have a lasting effect on the development of next generation of players.
“Golf is such a fundamental sport for development; it’s not just about physical activity and having fun,” he said. “The values of golf can be correlated to the values of society: confidence, resilience and integrity.
“Imagine playing golf and you miss the ball or you end up in the sand; you have to get back up and try again. You block the noise around you and focus on the ball to make the right shot.”
Jones highlighted in particular the importance of integrity as one of golf’s defining characteristics, and how that can help shape personal development.
“The rules of golf are reliant on you following them,” he said. “That sense of honesty and self-discipline is something young players can carry beyond the course” into the roles they play in their communities, societies and countries.
“The role that golf can have with young people in Saudi Arabia is actually another layer of baking in those core societal skills, to ensure that they are fit and robust for the future,” Jones added.
This is particularly important given the youthful nature of the Saudi population, more than half of which is under the age of 30, he said, and they now have the chance to benefit from golf in one way or another.
“Golf is now another avenue that they can explore. Whether it’s playing, working in the sport or simply finding a community, we want to give them another reason to get excited.
“We believe that golf can do all of that and, hopefully, it can spark a lasting passion among the Saudi youth.”
