Liverpool lost to Real Madrid in the 2017/18 Champions League final. In addition to Los Blancos’ success in winning the Champions League three times in a row, Mohamed Salah’s cries became one of the big topics after the battle in Kiev.
After only half an hour of the match, with tears in his eyes, Salah was forced to leave the field due to an injury he sustained from being ‘slammed’ by Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos. The moment was considered a turning point for Real Madrid to win the match because Liverpool lost one of its flagship attackers.
But the cry turned into happiness a year ago. Salah returned to the Champions League final with Liverpool against Tottenham Hotspur. At that time, he managed to finish the match that was held at the Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid and led Liverpool to become Champions League champions. Even the Egyptian National Team striker scored Liverpool’s first goal that won by a score of 2-0.
Cry, rise, that’s Mohamed Salah. Turning tears into happiness turns out to be part of Salah’s career journey so far. Because it is not just in Kiev, Salah makes the tears as fuel to improve the quality of himself so that he can perform more.
When he was young, Salah was said to have been familiar with crying. It was told by Eric Bekoe, a striker from Ghana who was nicknamed “the King of Gol” while working in Egypt.
“I’m a great player in Egypt. Mohamed Salah and other young Egyptians want to be like me. Salah makes me a role model. When I played at FC Petrojet, Salah was young and played for the young Al-Mokawloon team. He was a left-wing player who always wanted to score a lot of goals and he sometimes cries when his efforts to score from the wing don’t work. “
False cries at a young age are not mere figments. One former teammate at Al-Mokawloon named Ahmad Saad told me that Salah had cried during halftime due to being scolded for playing ugly. But the great thing is, after crying, the game Salah is just going crazy.
“In one match with the U16 team, Salah played very badly and after the first half ended, our coach, Hamdi Nouh, insulted him until he cried. But what happened later, in the second half, Salah scored three goals!”
Cry, rise up, Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian national team has also felt the ‘ferocity’ of crying Salah. In 2013, the then captain of the Egyptian national team, Mohamed Aboutrika, had to calm Salah who cried after Egypt defeated 1-6 from Ghana in the first leg of the 2014 World Cup play-offs. The crushing defeat indeed made it difficult for Egypt to be able to step into the World Cup finals , where then Egypt only won 2-1 in the second leg.
Forward four years later, without senior players such as Aboutrika, Ahmed Faty, and Wael Gomaa, the burden of bringing Egypt to the World Cup is on Salah’s shoulders. Meanwhile, Egypt, who are in group E qualifying rounds, are part of a rather heavy group with Uganda, Congo, and the team that eliminated them four years ago, Ghana.
At the first meeting against Ghana, Egypt won 2-0 in which Salah contributed one goal. But the most crucial thing is when entering the fifth match, Egypt was almost eliminated again because of a 1-1 draw against Congo in normal time, while they will face Ghana at home in the last match, Uganda who one point below will face a caretaker team, Congo.
Until finally, before the match against Congo ended, Egypt got a penalty kick in the second half injury time. One step forward as executor. What followed was history. His successful penalty kicks ensured a place in the 2018 World Cup group phase belongs to Egypt, for the first time since 1990. Becoming sweeter because Egypt managed to take revenge for defeat four years ago.
Finally, in February 2019, when Liverpool and Manchester City’s competition for the Premier League title was fierce, Salah was seen crying in the Manchester United vs Liverpool match which ended in a 0-0 draw.
The moment occurred after the former Chelsea and AS Roma players walked out of the field to be replaced by Divock Origi. It seems, as Bekoe said, Salah cried because he could not score, in this case against MU. In that fight Luke Shaw managed to turn off the movement Salah. So as is known, in that season, Liverpool failed to win the Premier League.
But this season, Salah is still in his best performance. Liverpool did not even feel defeat until the 28th week, before the defeat of Watford. Juergen Klopp’s squad is getting closer to Liverpool’s first Premier League title. So far, Salah scored a total of 16 goals.
Please note, Salah was absent in Liverpool’s first meeting against Man United this 2019/20 season. But he appeared in the fight against Man United at Anfield. Even in the match won by Liverpool with a score of 2-0, Salah (finally) scored his first goal against Manchester United after four previous meetings with no goal.
Once again. Cry, rise up, Mohamed Salah.
ASL
