Ramy Abbas Issa, the agent of Mohamed Salah who has often been at the centre of discussion around the Egyptian’s time at the club, has given a rare interview about his client.
On Thursday, Salah took a break from his international duties to receive the Fans’ Player of the Year at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai.
And speaking at the event, Abbas hailed the Liverpool talisman as “the only truly international Arab global icon.”
The award is the latest in a long list of individual honours Salah has received in recent years, and Abbas believes his client deserves plenty of credit for his achievements.
“It’s much of a rollercoaster for him on an individual level because he has won every single individual award there is to be won, whilst playing in the strongest league in the world,” he told Al Arabiya Sport.
“With regards to the team results, yes it wasn’t his luckiest year. But hopefully this season he can take home one of the two most important awards.
“It’s very easy to criticise, but it’s always better to be the one being criticised than the one sitting there and doing nothing and just issuing criticism.
“So I fully support what he says, I think people should really listen to him. In all of the fields he is the only truly international Arab global icon.”
Abbas was also quizzed on the new long-term Liverpool contract Salah eventually penned in the summer, with the forward’s Anfield deal now running until 2025.
At the time, Abbas played his part in the announcement of the contract with one of the cryptic tweets we’ve become used to seeing from him in recent years, before Liverpool used it to unveil the news on their social media channels.
And Salah’s agent believes that, although it was good to get the contract signed and sealed, the Egyptian doesn’t ever need any extra motivation on the pitch.
“It’s good to know where he’s going to be for the next two-and-a-half years, but when someone has been playing football for so many years at the highest level – I don’t think you need much motivation,” he continued.
“Even when he’s stepped on the pitch he doesn’t think about contracts or these things, he just lives the moment and tries to do his best for whichever team, regardless of where he is playing.”
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