The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Featured image via GQ Middle East

Transforming from a football player with high potential, into a club and national team star is difficult. It requires poise, charisma, and meticulous decision making. One wrong endorsement could be the end of your popularity, and a right one could put the whole world at your feet, or boots, so to speak. After becoming a highly popular football star, Mo Salah had to learn to improve his photo shoot skills to meet his ball shooting skills, but did he succeed?

The season so far has been a controversial one for Mo Salah. From his “slow” start that drove media pundits claiming he’s a one-season wonder, to Egyptian fans creating ludicrous theories as to why his form has dropped. However, and especially in recent games, Salah has been silencing his critics with his performances, getting a spectacular hat-trick against Bournemouth, and slotting in a beauty of a goal against Napoli to give Liverpool a spot in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Some fans have been worried about Momo’s decision to not celebrate directly after his goals, but now it’s believed that the look he gives is something of a challenge to his critics; a look-at-me-now sort of moment.

Outside the football arena though, Salah’s life hasn’t been free of social media hassles either. One of the PR roles of football stars is to do photo shoots, and while some are naturally gifted – we’re talking about you, David Beckham – others can’t quite bend it like Beckham.

GQ Middle East has set up a photo session featuring our very own Mo Salah. His goal scoring ability got him a lot of awards last season, but as for his camera skills, let’s just say we don’t expect any awards in that area. But aside from those awkward-ish poses that could pass as somewhat adorable, people have also been laying it heavy on the clothes. Why don’t you see for yourself?

Being the sarcastic people that we are, people instantly saw this photo shoot in a comic style, comparing such loose clothes to the stereotype of Egyptian mothers buying clothes for her sons, “it will shrink to your size after the first wash.” On the other hand, other Egyptian and international fans have been nothing but positive in the comments.

In any case, this is all just fun and games. From our side, we don’t truly believe that Mohamed Salah has changed, he’s the same person we know and love, but we do need to understand that he’s a global personality now, and not all that he does is targeted towards his Egyptian fans. Here’s to many more goals, awards, and trophies for our Egyptian superstar.