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A statue of Liverpool and Egyptian ace Mohamed Salah has been unveiled in his home country recently, and has caused much buzz among fans.
The forward has a massive following across the world after his glorious 2017-18 season with Liverpool, where he scored 32 goals to win the Golden Boot. The Egyptian also won England’s player’s player of the year award, and was nominated for FIFA’s World Player of the Year, and the Ballon d'Or this year.
The statue showing Salah in his trademark celebration pose, was created by an Egyptian sculptor named Mia Abdel Allah, and was unveiled at the World Youth Forum in Egypt.
Speaking of her inspiration for the statue, Abdel Allah told al-Masry al-Youm newspaper (via the Egypt Independent) that she was inspired by the Liverpool forward's open-arm celebrations after scoring goals. She added,
"I found it is distinguished and executable"
The sculptor also explained that Salah stands as a symbol of excellence in life for his country's youth.
The statue has since been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo's famous sculpture by Emanuel Santos, it was criticised as not resembling the Portuguese ace.
Social media has been rife with reaction to the statue, with some even suggesting that Salah looked more like the 1970s musicians Leo Sayer and Art Garfunkel, the character Marv Merchants from the Home Alone movies, and cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head.
Here we take a look at Twitter's funniest reactions to the statue.
The sculptor has since responded to criticism of the statue saying,
"When I started the statue, I did not think it would be for the youth forum or for the exhibition. I started it on the Facebook page and I explained the steps and steps to define who has the talent and the desire to learn sculpture"
"The important thing is that the statue came out in the end, as you can see. I am not angry and I do not feel remorse, because I have done what can be done, not shorter, and negative comments will not frustrate me"
She added,
"I hope that people will learn the art of criticising politely and respectfully, because some may not be critical. I am thankful for God and I bear the criticism"
