Soccer star Mohamed Salah added to Egypt’s national curriculum

Soccer star Mohamed Salah’s life story has been added to Egypt’s national curriculum in the hope of inspiring students.

Liverpool soccer star Mohamed Salah proves a hit with kids during a visit to Italy. Now children in his native Egypt will study the secrets of his success. Picture: Instagram

He is by a long chalk the world’s favourite living Egyptian and has been heralded as a role model in his adopted city of Liverpool.

Now it is not just football training manuals that will teach people what it takes to be Mohamed Salah. The Premier League striker’s life story has been added to Egypt’s national curriculum to inspire the country’s students to greater things.

The story of Salah’s career, prodigious goal-scoring and philanthropy has been made a topic in English-language textbooks for both primary and secondary schools throughout Egypt.

Salah’s rise in the world of international football, including scoring more goals than any other African player in the Premier League, has brought welcome cheer to Egypt after a tough decade. Through a revolution, a coup, mass shootings and an economic collapse, in Salah, 29, the country has a totem that has brought it kudos around the world.

Just as welcome has been the manner of his success. Salah lives a quiet life in Liverpool with his wife, Magi Sadeq, and their two children, and pours his money into good works.

His own birthplace, the poor farming community of Nagrig in the Nile Delta, has been among the main beneficiaries. He has funded a new girls’ school, a water treatment centre and an ambulance unit there, as well as setting up a charity for orphans and the needy for the surrounding province.

The texts for primary children focus on his playing career. The topics at secondary school include his charitable donations and questions such as what it means to be a successful hero.

“Salah’s desire to help others is because he wants to give young people a chance to succeed,” the secondary school book says.

The Times