Personal bodyguard Mohamed Salah spoke about the extreme measures taken to protect the star “Liverpool” He accompanies the football player almost everywhere — especially in his native Egypt.
Why does Salah need such serious protection?
Karim Abdu has worked with many legendary footballers, including Roberto Carlos, Alessandro Del Piero and Angel Di Maria. But now the former head of security for the Egyptian national team has chosen his compatriot Salah as his main client.
They have known each other for almost ten years and Karim even followed the player to Italy when he was young and joined Roma. Since then, Salah has become one of the most famous footballers of all time, joining Liverpool and becoming a huge star.
Salah’s growing popularity means that Karim and his team must check everything they pass on to the player. Speaking on the 5ASide podcast, the bodyguard explained:
“All gifts must be scanned. We don’t accept gifts, but sometimes if I take them from people, they have to be checked. You never know what’s in the gift. It could make him sick or kill him, you never know.”
How do fans track Salah?
Karim also explained that Salah had to be made “invisible” because it would go crazy if the Egyptian public found out where he was. Karim recalled how fans noticed the football player in Egypt:
“One day he went to pray at the mosque. Nobody knew where he lived, and someone was following him and created a WhatsApp group: “Mo Salah lives at this address.” Within five minutes, about 20 thousand people came to his house.”
But the worst the bodyguard saw came after Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool won the Champions League in 2019 and Salah returned home to celebrate Eid al-Adha.
“All the Egyptian media, television, newspapers — it was like the World Cup final. They lined up in front of his house. He was inside and couldn’t even open the door. They tried to enter through the back entrance, but were unable to do so.
He had to go and pray outside with everyone. After all, he had just won the Champions League, so everyone wanted to take a photo with him,” the bodyguard recalled.
Karim admitted that Salah is worshiped in his native country, considering him a very influential person. After all, he does a lot of charity work, builds hospitals and schools, and saves sick children. “People write up paper notes and give them to him because they think he will solve all their problems,” the bodyguard said.
“He paid millions and millions for sick people. He buys ambulances for the city. He helped people who were short on money get married, pay bills or have surgery.”