If anything, the mural has worked too well. A few months ago, a giant image of a beaming Mohamed Salah appeared on a wall outside a Cairo street café, nestled alongside pictures of some of Egypt’s greatest cultural figures, including the singer Umm Kulthum and the novelist Naguib Mahfouz.

Soon, the spot became a place of pilgrimage: for Egyptians wanting to honor Salah, the forward whose nerveless injury-time penalty secured the country a place at the World Cup for the first time in 28 years; and for tourists bewitched by his extraordinary form for Liverpool, his English club team.

“It’s become very popular,” said Hani Fathy, the café’s manager. “Everyone takes pictures of it: foreigners, Egyptians. He is a symbol of Egypt, all of it.” In fact, it has become such a destination that — despite the boost to business it provided — Fathy has had to start turning people away.