Mo Salah, the goal king who in Egypt is a charitable deity
The Liverpool forward gains as many plaudits for his work off the pitch as on it, after turning down a mansion and helping a man who burgled his home.
Mohamed Salah has been transformed into a global superstar since his move from Roma to Liverpool last summer, scoring 38 times for the Premier League side and helping Egypt to the World Cup for the first time in 28 years.
In Egypt though, Salah has long been viewed as more than a footballer: he is regarded as something approaching a deity. And it is not just because of his extraordinary skill with a football but what he does with the enormous wealth that brings. Salah has never forgotten his roots and his upbringing in Nagrig, a small town in northern Egypt, where he makes regular donations to hospitals, rehabilitation programmes, schools and religious centres.
The Mohamed Salah Foundation was set up by the Liverpool forward to help the most disadvantaged people in the region of Basyoun, where he grew up and various institutions in Egypt carry his name, including the school where he studied. He also donated 500,000 euros to a hospital in Cairo specializing in child cancer treatment.
Mansion keys and thieves
After scoring the goal that took Egypt to the World Cup in Russia, business tycoon Mamdouh Abbas offered Salah a luxury mansion. But the player declined and said he would be happier if Abbas make a donation to one of the causes he supports in Nagrig.
Salah even went so far to ensure that a man who was found guilty in court of burgling his family home while the forward was playing in a game for Egypt against DR Congo did not go to jail as a result. Salah then funded his entry into a rehabilitation and social reinsertion programme.
