Liverpool's football superstar Egyptian Mohamed Salah backed away when a reporter leaned towards him, after apparently assuming she was going in for a kiss on the cheek.

During the post-match interview, the reporter leaned in towards Salah in a bid to raise her voice, prompting the winger to pull away slightly and lift his hand in alarm.

The famed footballer was among the club's stars who were interviewed on the pitch at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium following Liverpool's win in the 2019 UEFA Champions League against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

The hilarious video clip became a social media sensation among users.

One Twitter user commented on the video clip saying jokingly that Liverpool's forward pulled away "because it was Ramadan", the Muslim holy fasting month.

Read more: Islamophobia decreases sharply in Liverpool thanks to Mo Salah

Another user praised Salah for his loyalty to his wife, whom he met in school in Nagrig and married in 2013.



"A whole footballer. A world known celeb that will proudly curve other women cos he respects his wife & his marriage," user pxsha_a tweeted.

Mohamed Salah is not only a record-breaking goal-scorer, with 32 goals to his name in 38 games of the 2017-18 English Premier League, but he is also one of the most visibly Muslim players in the UK.



The superstar player regularly performs an Islamic prostration to thank God every time he scores a goal, an action which has been included in the FIFA 2019 video game.

Liverpool FC's manager, Jurgen Klopp said that Salah lives in a world "where people think '[Muslims] are all like this' or 'they are all like that'… it's nice to have somebody around full of joy, full of love and to do what he is doing around his religion". Salah's fame has been as much to do with his winning personality as his footballing skills.

Liverpool fans have been filmed singing pro-Islam chants ever since Salah was signed, including one which says: "Mohamed Salah, a gift from Allah."



Earlier this week, a new study has found that hate crimes and Islamophobia have decreased significantly in the Liverpool area since Egyptian football star Salah was signed by Liverpool FC.

The study, by the Immigration Policy Lab, a thinktank which informs governments about migration issues, found that hate crimes had decreased by 18.9 percent in the county of Merseyside – of which Liverpool is the main city. The study also looked at 15 million tweets by Liverpool fans and found that the level of Islamophobic tweets by them had decreased by half, from 7.2 percent to 3.4 percent. The study concluded that these results had been influenced by an increasing familiarity with Islam and Muslims as a result of Salah's fame, calling this "positive exposure" and contrasting it with the negative image of Islam prevalent in British society at large.

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