Mo Salah sparks controversy after removing Egypt from Twitter bio

The profile, which used to read "Footballer for Liverpool FC and Egypt", now reads as just "Footballer for Liverpool FC".

The deletion came hours after FIFA revealed the national nominations for the world's best player award, in which Egypt was surprisingly not included.

This has raised speculation that Salah removed the reference to Egypt out of anger at Egyptian national team captain Ahmed Elmohamady and former coach Javier Aguirre.

Both Elmohamady and Aguirre didn't vote for Salah and he missed out on the coveted prize. The award for Best FIFA Men's Player 2019 was instead given to Argentinean star Lionel Messi. 

Salah came fourth in the list of the world's best players, behind Juventus player Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool player Virgil van Dijk.

The FIFA nominations list also revealed that an Egyptian journalist picked Salah's Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of Salah.

Egyptians took to Twitter to express their thoughts on the issue, with some accusing Salah of a lack of patriotism while others sympathised with the 27-year-old player.

Twitter Post

Salah took to Twitter a few hours after the controversy blew up with a tweet emphasing his love for Egypt. 

"Whatever they do to change my love for you [Egypt] and your people, they will not succeed," he wrote.

Egypt's coach Javier Aguirre was sacked less than three hours after Egypt was knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations - perhaps explaining why he did not vote.

Cup of Nations hosts Egypt were knocked out in the Round of 16 by South Africa in July, losing 1-0 after a poor performance where star player Salah seemed out of form. 

Twitter Post

According to Ahram Online, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) insists Egypt sent its nominations four days before the 19 August deadline.

The relationship between Salah and the EFA allegedly turned sour after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, in which Egypt lost all three games.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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