On Monday, March 11th, AlexBank announced Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah as the official new Brand Ambassador.
A good number of Egyptian journalists and media representatives were present to cover the conference held at Liverpool’s stadium, Anfield.
Naturally, the Liverpool forward was asked many questions about the title race between Manchester City and his club. As well as the Champions League and of course, his own dreams and achievements.
However, when asked about the pressures he faces, how he handles social media and keeps moving forward in the sea of negativity, Salah went on a full on rant about how he doesn’t really care anymore about what’s being said online.
But what happened is that people all over social media are now attacking him for being arrogant. Why?
Well after talking about how social media doesn’t affect him, he also elaborated on how educating yourself is basically the key to success. And how all of us in Egypt don’t usually have a strong self-educational mentality in order to better ourselves in many different aspects.
He added that most of us think that we know and are aware of everything without giving ourselves the chance to know and learn for real. And that we have a weakness when it comes to evolving education.
On the other hand, the Egyptian also took pride in his efforts to defy all of this by educating himself and building up the mentality to be better as a person. Along with, of course, reaching the miles he did in comparison to many.
The Social Media Attack
Even though the press conference was videotaped, a lot of social media accounts and people have paraphrased his statement to make him look like he was shaming Egyptians for being ‘uneducated ‘ and ‘retroactive’. In addition to being arrogant for thinking he’s reached a few miles in his career that no other Arab or African achieved.
That’s when the internet started splitting between supporting him and seeing no wrong in his words, and those who have officially declared war on the player.
Former footballer, Ahmed Hossam Mido, has addressed the controversy and sided with Salah. Many other people also did the same. Even Salah himself had some stuff to say about the matter in a tweet.
However, a lot have REALLY opened fire.
We do understand where some of the anger is coming from. However, we can all see how the words were taken out of context and turned around to make Salah look like the bad guy.
Salah did not just say ‘Egyptians’ or ‘Egypt’ is such and such. He said ‘we’, including himself in the conversation. And the truth is that what he said, is exactly what we tell ourselves almost every single day.
He did not really bash Egypt to foreigners; he was directing his words at the Egyptian journalists surrounding him in the conference.
He identified and related to what he said and did not exclude himself. He was sort of stating facts, along with his opinion, which he’s entitled to.
He did not say he’s better than anyone; he was just taking pride and accrediting himself for what he achieved. Don’t you guys think? Is that wrong?
