Mohamed Salah’s story of success and sacrifice: ‘Chasing a dream I had to reach’

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The truth is he has achieved the impossible.Hamdi Nouh, Salah’s first coach at Al Mokawloon and who he has referred to as a “second father”, knows that is because “he was ready to sacrifice everything, he wanted to work hard, and liked to learn”. He funded Salah’s football path, first to Ittihad in Basyoun, which was only a half-hour trip, then on to the Othmason club in Tanta, 90 minutes away, all before he became a teenager, followed by the almighty mission to Al Mokawloon.Salah was eight when he started training there and rushed at opponents with the fearlessness of a microbus driver.

“He was fast and could do things with the ball the other boys couldn’t.” Salah’s father knew it, and despite his own apprehensions about the big city and how it could swallow and spit out young hopefuls, he told Umm Mohamed they were doing the right thing.Back to the entrance of Al Mokawloon’s youth sector, and just behind the black steel gates, lies a story that hasn’t travelled the world like the bus trip. One of Salah’s teammates had suggested they could stay at his uncle’s house in Greater Cairo for the week.

When they arrived at the house, in the black of the night, his friend’s uncle was not there. In the morning, they would again go into covert mode and Salah enjoyed that he could be early for training.Salah had already packed in a lifetime’s worth of sacrifice, effort and lessons by his 18th birthday.