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The ball was round and the game lasted 90 minutes. The stadium was packed to the brim. But while there were 22 players on the pitch, for the residents of the small Nile Delta village of Nagrig, only one truly counted.
In his hometown, Mohamed Salah – affectionately known as Mo and “Egyptian King” – isn’t just a record-setting, world-famous football player. He is a benefactor, a friend, and a favourite son.
Arriving at the small Café El-Alemy on the edge of town 15 minutes into the game with an attentive, if tardy, police escort accompanying Euronews on the trip, Salah’s image was so ever-present it was impossible to miss.
The El-Alemy – meaning “Global” in Arabic – is an unassuming, semi-permanent establishment owned by Salah’s cousin, Wael. Inside, the joint is adorned with streamers, flags and banners in Liverpool’s red sprinkled with yellow. Much more obvious were the hundreds of photos of Salah, including one of his face superimposed onto the Sphinx.
Yet the café was relatively empty. Tottenham had scored three minutes earlier – a simple header from a corner by one of Liverpool’s former players, Dominic Solanke – and LFC’s chances of securing the Premier League title that day seemed to be in peril.
Back in Nagrig, Wael stood unperturbed, sipping spiced coffee and mint tea. “Football is in his blood,” he said, beaming with pride and still confident that his cousin would bring home the title for Liverpool.
From the fields to the pitch
In a country where 95% of the 113 million-strong population lives on just 5% of the land, urbanisation encroaches onto most of the fertile land. Yet Nagrig remains nestled in swathes of green fields, growing jasmine and watermelons for generations.
It is still heavily reliant on agriculture, and Mayor Maher Shatiya estimates that two-thirds of its residents still suffer from poverty. This was the scene of Salah’s childhood, growing up in the 1990s.
A few minutes after going 1-0 down to Tottenham, Luiz Diaz equalised for Liverpool, and a few more Nagrig residents trickled in, seemingly as interested by the journalist who came to watch the game with them as by their friend on the large TV.
One of them was Ahmed, a childhood friend and “brother” of Mo Salah.
“We were always at the local youth club,” Ahmed reminisces over a coffee and cigarette. “Mohamed was always playing football. Our whole life was about football.”
“Ahmed used to sit with him. He used to give him a lift,” Wael cuts in from behind a coffee machine in the back room.
The two reminisced about how the now-widely recognised player would have to take four or five minibuses multiple times each week as a teenager to cross the 120 kilometres to a training ground in the Nasr City suburb to the west of Cairo, where he started his professional career in 2006.
“Every 40 kilometres, he would have to change,” Wael remembered.
A sedate clap rings out in the café, drowned out by a tractor carrying a mountain of watermelons. Alexis Mac Allister had just put Liverpool in the lead, but the crowd were saving their cheers for their favourite striker.
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Hasan, who had travelled from the northern city of Alexandria to watch the match, said he set up a fan group for Salah early on that quickly ballooned to hundreds of thousands of followers. Soon he became friends with the man himself.
“When Mohamed Salah went to Basel, when he was a low-key player, it was very strange,” he explains. Saleh’s international career began in 2012 at the Swiss club, where he helped propel them to domestic dominance.
Hasan recalls a breakout moment for the Egyptian superstar at the club. “It was this random team, and yet Mohamed Salah scored a goal against Chelsea.”
“At the time it was something very peculiar in my view: how did this Egyptian guy do that? How did he have this unique opportunity to score a goal against a Premier League club?”
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Soon after, Salah moved to Chelsea, but there he was just one of many young talents the London club – owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich at the time – acquired from all over the world.
Following a foray of loans to Italian clubs and a transfer to Roma, Salah eventually settled down at Liverpool in 2017, where he soon became a standout striker for the club, scoring over 180 goals to date.
It’s not about the money
Saleh’s friends and family see this as the ultimate move to cement the career of a man who lives and breathes football.
“The English Premier League is the biggest league in the world and we are convinced it is the toughest league in the world,” Wael says, bringing over fresh coffee.
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While in recent months there were doubts on whether Salah, now in his 30s, would depart on a high and go to another league and a potentially more lucrative contract – as has become commonplace with stars of his calibre looking to see out their careers – Wael and his friends were convinced that this is where Mo would stay.
Despite being almost seven years older than the average Premier League player, residents of Nagrig believe Salah is nowhere near done. “He’s just signed for another two years with Liverpool. He’s not going to retire now. Mohamed will play football until he is 40,” Ahmed insisted.
Wael was also adamant that his cousin wouldn’t be tempted by the vast sums of money offered by clubs in close-by Saudi Arabia – at least not yet.
“Money isn’t everything. No. Mohamed’s principle was never money from the beginning,” a trait of his upbringing in Nagrig, Wael said.
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Notably, Salah has reportedly earned €21 million this year and is now the Premier League’s second-best-paid player, after Manchester City’s Erling Haaland. Yet the alleged offer from Saudi Arabia earlier this year would have easily doubled his earnings, and then some.
The ever-increasing crowd clap a little louder as Cody Gakpo scores a third goal for Liverpool, and the Anfield stadium – with some 60,000 LFC fans all wearing red – was bouncing.
The title was firmly back in Liverpool’s grasp, but the crowd in Nagrig was still restless, waiting for their man to seal the deal.
‘Biggest dream in children’s minds’
As people settled back in for the second half, the conversation turned from the effects the village had on Mo Salah to the impact he had on Nagrig.
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“Everyone now wants their children to play football,” one of his friends leaned in to say over the noise from the TV set.
“He is the biggest dream in children’s minds here and has made life easier for them. His name is synonymous with Nagrig. Now his name is well-known, Nagrig has reached the world.”
However, some still question how surface-level the village’s newfound fame might be. “This is the first time I’ve talked to a foreigner about this,” Ahmed said.
“Lots of people come here to take photos. No one has ever spoken to us, to his friends.”
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The Liverpool striker has also given back more directly to his hometown. “The building of the Al-Azhar Institute, the educational institute for students, was funded by Salah. It cost him more than 17 million Egyptian pounds (€300,000), and Mohammed actually built the ambulance unit,” Mayor Maher Shatiya told Euronews.
A keen ex-football player himself, Shatiya was unable to attend the gathering due to a knee operation. However, the mayor, who had been in office for more than a decade, was keen to highlight Salah’s help to the area.
“Mohamed donated two plots of land for the sewage station and is currently building the Nagrig Post Office,” he beamed. “Mohamed Salah Charitable Foundation pays a monthly stipend to families of orphans, widows and divorcees within the governorate.
And then it came. It was the 63rd minute, the crowd at the café finally erupted with joy as their man picked up an incisive pass, swung sharply left and volleyed in a fourth goal past Tottenham’s powerless keeper. Even the police escort let out a cheer.
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The goal also made Salah the Premier League’s top foreign-born goalscorer.
Six minutes later, the Spurs’ Destiny Udogie pushes Liverpool’s lead to 5-1 with a punishing own goal, further hounded by Mo. The Premier League is as good as won. In Liverpool, red balloons were whisked onto the pitch from the stands by the English breeze. Eagerly chatting, the crowd in Nagrig were jubilant.
As the final whistle blew at Anfield and Liverpool could rest easy in their Premier League win, the police officers tapped their watches from the café’s doorway. They were getting tired, and it was time to go.
Approaching Wael to pay for the teas and coffees, he laughed and shook his head, firmly refusing the cash.
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“This is Nagrig. Money isn’t everything”.
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