CAIRO – Liverpool Muslim star Mohamed Salah made a Syrian refugee kid’s dream come true when he met him during the Reds’ pre-season tour in the United States.

“Ammar is a smart kid. He loves to play and he loves sleeping. He’s shy but he loves school and football. Ammar has a health problem, he doesn’t get bigger like other kids and he can’t play soccer. It’s a problem with his entire body, muscular dystrophy,” Ammar’s mother Radwa said, Egypt Independent reported.

“He watches matches and it’s his dream to meet a player. The doctor called me and I told her Ammar wanted to meet Mohamed Salah. The doctor told us it would be tough but she’d try. When they called to tell us it was happening and he was going to meet Salah, Ammar was so happy, really excited. His happiness didn’t compare to anything,” she said.

Ammar Halabi, 16, a muscular dystrophy patient, fled to the States with his family as refugees two years ago.

Liverpool’s website published a video for the meeting between Salah and Halabi’s family.

Meeting his star, Ammar expressed the admiration and love he has for the Egyptian international.

“Everybody loves Salah and I want to be like him. He is a great person,” he said.

Hailing from a Muslim-majority country, Salah is a devout Muslim who often prostrates to God on the field after scoring goals – a trend in sports that Egyptian players have started since 2006 during the African Cup of Nations in Egypt- hence nicknamed the ‘Prostrating Pharaohs’.

Earlier this year, the traveling Liverpool fans in the streets of a Portuguese city in midweek struck up a new chant to the tune of the 90s hit “Good Enough” by Dodgy with the line: “If he scores another few, then I’ll be Muslim too!”

A recent report by Football Against Racism in Europe (Fare) found that the success of Liverpool Muslim star Mohamed Salah has significantly decreased hate and race crimes in the English Premier League.