Egypt’s Mohamed Salah has found himself in a soup. Reason? Liverpool’s forward Salah’s pictures with Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov went viral ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The Chechnya leader man accused of ´torture and extrajudicial killings´. Smiling pictures of Salah with Ramzan Kadyrov evoked severe reactions. “Mo Salah was woken from his sleep so a man accused of ‘torture and extrajudicial killings’ could have a photo with him during training,” wrote British tabloid The Sun.
The pictures agitated the netizens, who posted angry comments on Twitter and called Mo Salah a hypocrite. They in fact reminded Salah of the incident where he refused to shake hands with Israeli players. Check out a few tweets.
“Remember how @MoSalah refused to shake hands with 🇮🇱Israeli players in a match against @MaccabiTLVFC? Here he is 🤝shaking hands with Ramzan Kadyrov, one of the world's top human rights violators. Hypocrite much? 🤨,” read a tweet.
Remember how @MoSalah refused to shake hands with 🇮🇱Israeli players in a match against @MaccabiTLVFC?
Here he is 🤝shaking hands with Ramzan Kadyrov, one of the world's top human rights violators. Hypocrite much? 🤨 pic.twitter.com/Xz7XSV4QtJ
— Andreas Fagerbakke (@afagerbakke) June 11, 2018
“@MoSalah can go to hell!,” read another tweet.
@MoSalah can go to hell!
— Felix Makonye (@FelixMakonye) June 12, 2018
“You are a bigot and a disgrace @mosalah you side with and support palestinian extremists, whose objective is to exterminate jews. YOU are the problem, salah,” read another post.
you are a bigot and a disgrace @mosalah you side with and support palestinian extremists, whose objective is to exterminate jews. YOU are the problem, salah
— Boycott Islamist Apartheid (@ProsecuteCorbyn) June 11, 2018
This netizen criticized Ramzan Kadyrov for waking up the star footballer from his sleep after being excused from the practice session.
After being excused from Egypt training, Cechynyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov personally drove to the team hotel to wake Salah up and drive him to the stadium to pose for photos with him. #lfc [New York Times]
— lfcstuff (@stuffIfc) June 11, 2018
“That guy is an absolute tyrant. Murders gay men in his country,” wrote a netizen.
That guy is an absolute tyrant. Murders gay men in his country.
— Henry Charles (@hgcNYC) June 13, 2018
Mohamed Salah who was injured during the finals of the Champions League has started training a little. He got a very warm welcome in Russia and it's still not clear if he will play the match against Uruguay on June 15.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 13, 2018 10:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).