Friday March 29th, 2024
Download SceneNow app
Copied

Mohammed Salah Controversially Awarded Honourary Chechen Citizenship

Egypt's golden boy has received yet another honour by being awarded the Chechen citizenship.

Staff Writer

Mohammed Salah was awarded an honorary Chechen citizenship, the highest form of praise granted by the republic of Chechnya, on Friday according to Egypt Independent. 

The Egyptian football player accepted the title during an honorary ceremony that took place on Friday at the Presidential palace in Chechnya; which was where Egypt's national team's training camps were based. 

Stating that this is a well-deserved title, the Leader of Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov stated, "tonight I signed a decree to grant the high honour to the great footballer who plays for Egypt and Liverpool."

Playing in the World Cup for the first time since 1990, Egypt made it after Salah scored two goals. Having won a series of awards this year including the Golden boot and being dubbed PFA Players best player of the year, Salah Also received a silver plate and a jersey signed by Chechen's local team, FC Akhmat Grozny along with the citizenship. 

The honorary title, however, is surrounded by a significant amount of controversy as Kadyrov has previously been accused of human rights violations as well as crackdowns on the LGBT community and activists. Kadyrov was also banned from Instagram earlier this year. 

Subsequently, Salah has gotten negative feedback for receiving the award as outraged Liverpool fans have been requesting the football player to explain the reasons behind his acceptance of the title. Liverpool fan group Kop Outs and LGBT fan group Alliance Pride in Football have released a statement saying, “we utterly condemn the acceptance by Mo Salah of any honour from Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechnya.”

Check out the video below.  

Main image taken from hybridtechcar.com.