{"id":21233,"date":"2018-11-05T22:23:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T22:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21233"},"modified":"2018-11-05T22:23:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T22:23:04","slug":"statue-of-footballer-mo-salah-draws-online-ridicule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=21233","title":{"rendered":"Statue of footballer Mo Salah draws online ridicule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Renowned for his humble nature, no one could accuse football star Mohamed Salah of being big-headed.<\/p>\n

Until now, that is.<\/p>\n

Born in Nagrig in northern Egypt<\/a>, Salah is widely adored in his home country and headed the north African nation’s succesful push to qualify for this year’s football World Cup.<\/p>\n

But a new bronze statue of the 26-year-old has raised eyebrows across the world for its curiously\u00a0<\/span>ill-proportioned body parts, including its abnormally large head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Made by\u00a0artist Mai Abdullah, the figurine became a talking point\u00a0<\/span>on Twitter shortly\u00a0after being put on display on Sunday at the World Youth Forum (WYF) in\u00a0Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort town in Egypt’s northeastern\u00a0<\/span> <\/span> Sinai\u00a0Peninsula.<\/p>\n

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This Mo Salah statue is certainly something… ?? pic.twitter.com\/DPE0k9iBlg<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mo Salah Facts (@MoSalahFacts) November 4, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The artwork, which depicts Salah performing his trademark goalscoring celebration, was widely ridiculed for its apparently poor resemblance to the Liverpool player.<\/p>\n

Commentators\u00a0honed their criticism on its\u00a0unusually short and skinny legs, ill-scaled head and unrealistic hair.<\/p>\n

Independent football website Over The Bar said it was more akin to Marv from Home Alone than Salah.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What is it with footballers and statues? <\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s head looked more like Niall Quinn. And now the Mo Salah statue to be installed in Sharm El Sheikh looks more like Marv from Home Alone than Salah.#Salah<\/a> #LFC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/Y5Wxv6m3Vi<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 OverTheBar (@OverTheBarFB) November 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some, meanwhile, suggested the statue resembled Todd Flanders of US-cartoon The Simpsons.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why does the Mo Salah statue look like Todd Flanders?!?? pic.twitter.com\/rGgGnrSzk1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ??OllyMurs_LFC_YNWA?? (@MursAndSalah) November 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To one person, it was the spitting image of British musician Leo Sayer.<\/p>\n

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Nah. Anyone who thinks that Salah statue isn’t Leo Sayer is wrong. pic.twitter.com\/EZUPMwOORf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tom (@TomParkes_) November 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For another, American singer Art Garfunkel, of Simon & Garfunkel fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Is it Mo Salah or is it Art Garfunkel? @LFC<\/a> @SkySportsNews<\/a> ??? #embarrassedLFCfan<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/74e69qgtx0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mikey C (@MikeyC1102) November 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Abdullah, the artist,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Egypt Independent she was inspired to recreate Salah as he was a “symbol of excellence in life for Egypt’s youth”.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook\u00a0post<\/a>,\u00a0she also called for critics to act “politely” and with “respect”.<\/p>\n

\n

??? Can’t see anything wrong with this Salah statue, fits in perfectly… pic.twitter.com\/DVZrF5TXNn<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) November 4, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Salah himself has made no public comment about the statue. <\/span><\/p>\n

He’s perhaps\u00a0<\/span>getting his head down ahead of Liverpool’s upcoming European Champions League fixture against Serbian side Red Star Belgrade, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Renowned for his humble nature, no one could accuse football star Mohamed Salah of being big-headed. Until now, that is. Born in Nagrig in northern Egypt, Salah is widely adored in his home country and headed the north African nation’s succesful push to qualify for this year’s football World Cup. But a new bronze statue…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}