Egypt fans hope for more Salah magic as season starts

CAIRO: As Mohamed Salah took to the field for the start of the new Premier League season, fans in his native Egypt prayed Sunday for another miracle campaign from the talismanic striker.

Two dozen members of the local Liverpool supporters club gathered in a Cairo cafe to clap, cheer and celebrate as their hero got off to a winning start some 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) away.

“We used to struggle to find places to watch Liverpool play,” die-hard Reds fan Seif Mahdi, 18, told AFP.

“But now everywhere shows it — you just have to tell them you want to watch Salah play.”

The reason for the excitement is obvious — last season the Egyptian star smashed a string of records as he scored 44 goals for his English club.

Those performances propelled Salah into the elite of world football and helped cement his status as an icon back home.

Now his image stares down at the inhabitants of Cairo from adverts plastered along the traffic-clogged streets of the capital city.

His popularity has also helped turn Liverpool from a team few Egyptians knew much about to the most talked about foreign club in this country of some 100 million people.

That’s a strange feeling for the Liverpool fan club members who cheered on the team long before Salah’s arrival.

The supporters association in Egypt now boasts over 12,000 members.

“Before, I was unique and special when I told people who I supported,” said business student Omar Nabil, 24.