The Egyptian Football Association has come out saying that forward Mohamed Salah has not discussed international retirement with them.
There have been talks suggesting that the 26-year-old is set to quit his national team after their disappointing World Cup comes to an end against Saudi Arabia on Monday afternoon. Salah’s relationship with the EFA was strained leading up to the tournament with a sponsorship row taking focus away from preparations while he is reportedly disappointed at how he has been used for political gain by administrators.
Recent criticism received after he was pictured with controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, accused of numerous human rights violations, has apparently only contributed to the player’s unhappiness. However, the EFA says retirement is not an issue which has been raised.
“We were always informed by Salah when he takes any decisions,” it said in a statement. We spend the whole day together and he has never discussed this issue with any of the delegation’s members.”
Salah’s agent Ramy Abbas has been outspoken about the treatment of his client by the EFA in the past and he first took to Twitter on Friday to post some thoughts, starting with “Let these next few days just pass… and then we’ll see…”
Many took that to be a hint about Salah’s international future and a day later Abbas followed it up with “Fuming” and “#RespectForAll”.