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What's the story?
Liverpool and Egyptian ace Mohamed Salah has reportedly contacted the sculptor of the infamous statue that has gone viral on social media.
In case you didn't know...
A statue of Salah, created by an Egyptian sculptor named Mia Abdel Allah, was unveiled in his home country recently, and has since caused much buzz in social media.
The statue shows the Egyptian ace in his trademark celebration pose. It was unveiled at the World Youth Forum in Egypt.
The statue went viral on social media and was heavily mocked for looking nothing like Salah. It has even been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo's famous sculpture by Emanuel Santos which was criticised for not resembling the Portuguese ace.
Other fans suggested that Salah looked more like the 1970s musicians Leo Sayer and Art Garfunkel, and the character Marv Merchants from the Home Alone movies.
The heart of the matter
In a Facebook post, Mia Abdel Allah revealed that the Liverpool forward had directly contacted her in response to all the criticism she has been receiving.
The post loosely translates to, " 😃 😃 International and our hero Captain our player Mohamed Salah personally contacted me just now and encouraged me to continue. He asked me not to pay attention to the negative comments and told me that I am a very good artist 😍 ️️And asked me to take my time in the work of a new statue to put him in his home 😍 😍 😍."
According to Egypt Today, Salah told her in a phone call on Wednesday that she is a good artist, adding that she should not pay attention to the negative comments she has been receiving.
The Liverpool man also expressed his admiration for the works he saw on her Facebook page and encouraged her to continue.
According to Abdallah's post, Salah even asked her to work on a new statue that he can take home.
What's next?
Whether Mo Salah did make the effort to contact his fan remains to be seen but if reports are true, we could see yet another statue that the Egyptian will take home.
