When Mo Salah scored Egypt’s consolation goal from the spot against Russia the other day, a certain statistic stayed with me — it was the African country’s first World Cup goal since 1990 when they last qualified for the showpiece. As his dreams of excelling on the game’s biggest stage sees the end of the road, an obvious question dogs me: can this enigmatic striker get to play in another World Cup finals?
The Pharaohs, despite being one of the heavyweights of African football — as the seven titles in African Nations Cup can testify — have qualified only three times for the World Cup with nearly a three-decade gap separating their bow in Russia and Italia ’90.
Four years down the line, Salah is certain to outgrow his current club Liverpool and hopefully be another one of the mega-rich modern greats, but there’s no guarantee that his goalscoring exploits alone will be good enough to earn Egypt a berth among the five African qualifying spots.
Call it presumptuous if you will, but chances are that this enigmatic striker is surely to end up in the pantheon of great footballers whose success rate for the country can be no match with their club exploits — thanks to the national team’s limitations. This is where the greatness of a Cristiano Ronaldo lies as he carries the hopes of Portugal gamely — a country with a great footballing legacy but currently one (notwithstanding the Euro 2016 crown) which is definitely mediocre to be in pursuit of football’s biggest prize.
This is no attempt at comparison, but to take a look at Salah’s conundrum. The cult figure that this gifted striker has become in the most populous of Arab nations — especially after the last season — brought along sky-high expectations along with it but the shoulder injury in the Champions League final certainly acted as a deterrent from him going flat out in the World Cup so far. Hector Cuper, the seasoned Egypt coach, put things into perspective: “If he was not injured, it is very difficult to know what would have happened but we know the quality he has.”
The game is replete with shining examples of greatness at club level not being replicated with the country. Ask a certain Gareth Bale, the Real Madrid colleague of CR7 who showed true elements of a leader for Wales during their campaign in Euro 2016 but could not take the team all the way — or Robert Lewandowski, the Polish hit man who is always at his prolific best for Bayern Munich both at Bundesliga and Europe but his country Poland fails to command much respect in the footballing hierarchy now.
Out of Africa, there is no bigger such example than George Weah of Liberia. A Ballon d’Or winner in 1995 and also honoured as ‘African Footballer of the Century,’ Weah was one of the biggest legends from the continent who walked tall in the major European Leagues but could not make his country qualify for the World Cup finals even once.
The rare gem that Salah is, one can only hope that he can shine on both stages. And yes, there is one more group game left against Saudi Arabia to sign off from this edition of World Cup with some brownie points.
