Mohamed Salah's GQ photoshoot causes outrage in Egypt
To mark his nomination as GQ’s Man of the Year, Salah has appeared on the cover of the latest issue of the famous men’s magazine alongside Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrossio.
Mohamed Salah is one of the most globally-recognised faces of the Premier League, an international footballing star who is considered a national treasure in his native Egypt. And indeed such adoration in his conservative and religious home country also comes with a high level of scrutiny surrounding his off-the-field antics.
To mark his nomination as GQ’s Man of the Year, the Liverpool striker has appeared on the cover of the latest issue of the Middle East edition of the famous men’s magazine alongside the Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrossio – something which has sparked controversy in Egypt.
It’s not the first time that GQ has paired up famous athletes and supermodels to grace its cover. But this time the images of Salah, a practicing Muslim, and Ambrossio have caused outraged on social media among some of the more conservative factions in the North African nation, in particular an image of the Brazilian model hugging the 27-year-old striker from behind.
Salah criticism
Most of the comments criticizing the Liverpool striker have pointed to the fact he is a married Muslim man and therefore should not be embracing other women “in this way”.
“You embarrass me as a Muslim,” stated one angry social media user reacting to images of the GQ photoshoot uploaded to the player’s own Instagram account.
A video montage of the shoot posted on Twitter has also garnered a lot of criticism, with one Twitter user posting a picture of the Koran accompanied with the text: “Do you recognize this?”
Salah, who has 33.4 million Instagram and 10.4 million Twitter followers, has yet to comment on the criticism aimed at him over the GQ images.