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Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah has revealed that he sometimes feels pressure to be a role model, and also, in an interview with Time magazine, called for more respect for women, especially in the Middle East, Bestchoicesports.com.ng understands.

The 26-year old, who was chosen by Time as one of their 100 most influential people in 2019, was quoted as saying that “People always have big expectations for you. You see the kids, they’re wearing your shirt. They say they wish they could be like you one day.

“So they put you under pressure a little bit but in the meantime, that’s something that makes you proud about what you have reached until now,” he said.

Salah became an iconic figure in Egypt and the region after unpreceded successes playing for Liverpool in England’s Premier League. He was the only footballer to have been named to the Time list.

“To be the first Egyptian in [this] situation and no one has done this before … it’s something different,” he said.

Salah said that soccer fans in the Middle East “feel like I’m their son.”

The Liverpool winger said that his rise to fame hasn’t changed him as a person, and that he enjoys spending time with his family as usual.

“I just live my life normal,” he said. “Most of the time I stay at home, I don’t like to go out,” he added.

Support for women

In the videotaped interview published on Time website, Salah expressed his full support for women’s rights and called for a change in the culture in the region.

“I think we need to change the way we treat women in our culture. It’s not optional,” he said.

He was also quoted as saying that seeing how women were treated “in my culture and in the Middle East” had changed the way he thought about gender relations.

“I support the woman more than I did before, because I feel like she deserves more than what they give her now, at the moment.”