CAIRO –

The Egyptian national football team star, Mohamed Salah, sparked controversy after appearing with two bodyguards in the Egyptian team’s last match against Gabon, which ended with Egypt’s 2-1 victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

A number of social media pioneers commented on the appearance of Salah, accompanied by the guards, as some of them expressed their dissatisfaction with this scene, criticizing such an appearance in his country and among his family, while some saw that a global player the size of Salah may need such protection.

Egyptian athletes also criticized the entry of the guards around Salah inside the stadium, and their follow-up to him while shaking hands with the players of the opposing team and the refereeing staff, and their wearing a uniform similar to that of the technical staff.

Alaa Nabil on the clip of Mohamed Salah's guards after the Gabon match: A difficult scene.. You are between your family and your people, Salah # Match # Echo_Al-Balad@HHathout pic.twitter.com/Gdq1hbVnNL

- Sada El Balad (@baladtv) November 17, 2021

🇪🇬

Mohamed Salah has bodyguards who accompany him whenever he plays for the Egyptian national team pic.twitter.com/cU6EFFSPs5

— EPLWORLD (@EPLworld) November 17, 2021

#Mohamed_Salah, the two bodyguards!!


Learn from Don's humility pic.twitter.com/uohnrJGins

— Ayesha Al_Shamsi Ayesha Al Shamsi (@AOSOAlshamsi) November 17, 2021

🚨 My view on guarding Salah: A


lot of people criticize the presence of guards accompanying Salah, I see that he is completely entitled to have a special guard, because we have sloppiness and scurrying about everything, and a lot of those who criticize this themselves if they have the opportunity to bypass any system to imagine that they will work with him. That's it, and they say Messi and Ronaldo don't sell like this

— UTHⓂ️AN🅾️V Planet Al-Ruqan 🏖😎 (@Islam_Uthman) November 17, 2021

Egypt-Gabon, the match is played without an audience, the meeting is over, Mohamed Salah salutes the Gabon players and the referees... Normal?

… No, Mohamed Salah is accompanied on the field by 2 special guards, a meter away from him.

By this logic, the guards should have been present during the match... a very trivial sight 🙈

- Moroccan (@ Maghribi_1) November 16, 2021

Look at the two pictures, these are fans who went to the field to accept Salah at the height of the emergence of the Corona, which disturbed the Liverpool administration, so I asked to appoint guards for him, otherwise it would not allow him


to play with the Egyptian national team. This is Liverpool's request and this is one of the precautionary measures. Media Hatal pic.twitter.com/0GooSaTYZu

- Juma Al-Sahli (@7tU2AwHij9tZ2m4) November 17, 2021

media support

Egyptian journalist Ahmed Schubert said that there is nothing to prevent the presence of a personal guard for any football player, but the Football Association must implement this order intelligently, and distribute the personal guard in a respectful manner, describing the appearance of Mohamed Salah with the guard as "a provocative view."

Schubert said - during his presentation of the "On Time Stadium" program broadcast on the "ON Time Sports" channel - that it is not correct for the player to go to shake hands with the referees in order to protect the guards, expecting that the player himself will be upset with this situation.

Schubert called not to be preoccupied with this issue, and to pay attention to supporting the Egyptian team in the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers journey, which has reached its decisive stage.

On the other hand, the journalist close to the authority, Ahmed Moussa, marveled at the criticism of Salah's appearance in the company of the private guard, as Mohamed Salah is one of the most important stars in the world, indicating that what Salah does is not valued for money.

Moussa said - during the presentation of his program "On My Responsibility", broadcast on Sada Al-Balad channel, yesterday, Wednesday - that the Egyptian Federation is required to provide protection for Salah, as it is provided for Messi and Ronaldo.

official clarification

The Egyptian Football Association issued a statement - yesterday, Wednesday - in which it said that the special guard that accompanied Mohamed Salah, after the team's last match against Gabon, was keen to provide it without any request from the players.

The Egyptian Federation explained - in its statement, which it published on its Facebook page - that the decision came in the interest of the Federation that none of the team members would be exposed to any friction, especially in light of the outbreak of the Corona virus.

The union statement indicated that Mohamed Salah received special attention in some situations, in light of what we saw during the match between Angola and Egypt, that the match was stopped more than once to some fans storming the field during the course of the match to take memorial photos with him, as he is one of the game stars on The world level, in addition to what happened before after the end of the match between Egypt and Comoros, when Salah found himself trapped among the fans after the end of the match.

The Egyptian Federation confirmed that the arrival of the special guard staff to the field during the last meeting between Egypt and Gabon was an emergency, due to the celebration of the stadium before the start of the match, which witnessed the presence of many elements from outside the circle of those involved in the match.