LONDON: Egyptian player Mohamed Salah is not in the league of Argentine’s Lionel Messi or Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of scoring goal and winning awards. But despite his short stay at Liverpool he has made a mark with his brilliant performance and is fast becoming a darling of the English football community.

Mo Salah, as he is known in the English community, has already scored 30 goals during 36 games he played for his team and has become only the thirteenth player in Liverpool’s 125-year history to score his 30th goal in a season. Only George Allan in 1896 has reached that milestone quicker for the Reds. Former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, who now plays for Barcelona, was the last player to achieve 30 goals in a season, in April 2014.

This feast has not gone unrewarded as his Liverpool FC fans have found a novel way to pay tribute to their new star. They have prepared a new chant to the tune of Dodgy’s 1996 hit ‘Good Enough’ to express their love for Mo Salah and celebrate his faith.

“Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah, Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah, if he’s good enough for you, he’s good enough for me, if he scores another few, then I’ll be Muslim too,” fans have been filmed chanting from the stadiums to the pubs as they watch Salah’s footwork at play.

The rhyme continues: “He’s sitting in the mosque, that’s where I wanna be. Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah, Mo Sa-la-la-la-lah”. The chant for Salah, nicknamed the Egyptian King, being seen by some as a feat against endemic racism in English football, sparked a flurry of activity on social media with a number of football fans welcoming the song.

“Mo Salah is gonna stop Islamophobia”, tweeted a user with @Femi_SB as his Twitter handle.

“I’m not a Liverpool fan but you must believe Football builds bridges with this Red chant for Mo Salah,” wrote Gbolahan Obisesan, a writer who uses @GreatObisesan as his Twitter handle.

Several people joked, as the song does, that they were considering converting to Islam on account of Salah’s talent. “Mo Salah is so good I’m considering turning Muslim #TheEgyptianKing” joked @bairdy_10.

“I think I’m about 10 Mo Salah goals away from becoming Muslim,” wrote @OSMLFC.

“Mo Salah doing more to end the clash of civilisations than anyone else in the world,” joked satirist Karl Sharro.

“Mo Salah has turned me in to a devout Muslim catch me outside the mosque if you’re looking for me,” said @bradleymaguire.

Salah gave a seal of approval to the new chant with a social media thumbs up but credited his good performance to his manager Jurgen Klopp’s tactical expertise.

“With the boss here, I play a little bit closer to the goal, more so than at any other club or more than any of my other coaches have asked me to,” Salah told local newspaper Liverpool Echo.

“So I am always in front of the goal to give me the opportunity to score. The manager is always telling me to stay close to the goal in training. I don’t want to say too much because we still have a long way to go in the season and I don’t want to give too much away. But yes, it’s something we have worked on in the training sessions.”

Salah has reiterated his burning desire to ensure a season of individual brilliance is combined with team glory.

Liverpool have one step in the quarter-finals of the Champions League after last week’s emphatic 5-0 first leg win in Porto.

“I came here to win titles, to win something for the club, for us as players and for the fans,” he told Liverpool’s official matchday programme.

“I would love to win something with Liverpool and we are all working hard every day to try to achieve that.”

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018