Salah has played for the senior national team for 14 years and his importance for Egypt is such that high -ranked government officials are known to join when injured.
National team medicine, Dr. Recalling Mohammad Abaud, “I also made a call from the Egyptian Health Minister, when Sala suffered a serious injury to Liverpool’s defeat for Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League finals, and a few weeks later could miss the World Cup in Russia.
“I told him not to panic, everything is going well.”
Talking to his medical clinic in Madi area of the Egyptian capital, Dr. Abaud says: “I was small and pressure from inside the country was intense.
“I had phones from many people trying to help. One of our board members told me that I was now one of the most important people in the whole world.
“This situation turned me into a person.”
For records, Salah was unable to recover to recover to recover to play two of his country’s two group games, but was unable to stop Egypt from getting out quickly after being defeated by Uruguay, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Former Egyptian assistant coach Mahmood Faiz said, “I need to tell you that Sala was included in every target in our 2018 World Cup qualification campaign.”
Salah imposed a dramatic 95th-minute fine against Congo in Alexandria to first win 2–1 in the World Cup with a qualifying game and place Egyptian space for the first time in 28 years.
In a nail-biting game, Salah put Egypt ahead, before the Congo equaled three minutes in a time.
“Do you know when you can hear silence? I listened to silence when the Congo scored – 75,000 fans and silence everywhere,” Fayz says.
Then came the punishment that turned the advice into a national hero.
“Imagine, a nation of about 120 million is waiting for this moment to be worthy of,” Fayz says. “He had the most difficult and most difficult moment for a player, a punishment in the 95th minute that Mohammed was to score.
“They scored it and they felt proud of all of us. Later in the dressing room, he started dancing, hugging everyone and he was shouting ‘We did it, we did, we did’, 28 years later, we did it.”
Cahira has a football academy called ‘The Maker’, which is installed and run by the former Tottenham and Egyptian striker Mido, hoping to produce players who will run at the footsteps of Salaha.
“I played for the national team in front of 110,000 people when I was only 17 years old, the youngest player representing Egypt,” says Mido. “I like to feel that people depend on me and the advice is the same.”
At the time of our journey, a classroom is being recited for young players about the mentality required to become a top professional.
Under the name of advice on a whiteboard, one of the coaches has written “discipline, dedication and inspiration”.
Says Mido, “Salah is the reason where it is now because he works on his mental strength every day.”
“He is the greatest ambassador for Egypt and also for African players. He has honored Arab players to European clubs, this is what has been advised by the advice.
“I think there are now a lot of European clubs, when they look at an Egyptian player, they think of advice. They have dreamed our young players.”
