New Mohamed Salah Statue Mocked Online

This picture shows a statue of Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah displayed at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. (AFP)
This picture shows a statue of Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah displayed at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. (AFP)
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New Mohamed Salah Statue Mocked Online

This picture shows a statue of Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah displayed at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. (AFP)
This picture shows a statue of Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah displayed at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. (AFP)

A statue of Egypt and Liverpool footballer Mohamed Salah has been mocked since going on display in his home country.

The statue was unveiled with pomp and ceremony at the World Youth Forum in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in the presence of President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.

With large ears poking out from under a huge Afro hairstyle, Salah is captured in the pose of his now iconic goal celebration.

A broad smile is etched across his face and his oversized head is tilted backwards as the arms on his pint-sized body are stretched out wide.

Salah is idolized in Egypt and Liverpool, after his goal-scoring exploits last season took his country to the World Cup finals and his English club to the final of the Champions League.

The statue of him been mocked widely on social media, with many likening its appearance to that of 1970s British singer Leo Sayer or his American counterpart Art Garfunkel, reported AFP.

"People thought Cristiano Ronaldo's statue was bad. Wait till you see Mo Salah's," one Twitter user wrote, referring to the bronze bust ridiculed for looking nothing like the Portuguese football superstar.

"Statue carved by Stevie Wonder by the looks of it!" tweeted another, in reference to the blind US musician.

One social media user said Salah's statue looked like a "bobble head" -- the dolls placed on the dashboards of cars with oversized heads that nod incessantly.

"Yes, it's a statue, but where is Mohamed Salah?" said a post on Facebook.

The Egyptian artist who sculpted the statue, Mai Abdallah, has defended her work.

Abdallah said the statue had been made of plaster but became disfigured when the forum's organizers poured bronze over it, much to her surprise.

She said the statue was originally only meant to be used teach sculpture to students, in a post on Facebook where she also shared her other statues of Egyptian celebrities, reported AFP.



Pizza Delivery Monitor Alerts to Secret Israel Attack

The Pentagon is seen from the US Army Golden Knights parachute team plane ahead of their performance during the Twilight Tattoo ceremony as part of the Army’s 250th Birthday Festival in Washington, D.C., after taking off from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, US, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The Pentagon is seen from the US Army Golden Knights parachute team plane ahead of their performance during the Twilight Tattoo ceremony as part of the Army’s 250th Birthday Festival in Washington, D.C., after taking off from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, US, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
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Pizza Delivery Monitor Alerts to Secret Israel Attack

The Pentagon is seen from the US Army Golden Knights parachute team plane ahead of their performance during the Twilight Tattoo ceremony as part of the Army’s 250th Birthday Festival in Washington, D.C., after taking off from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, US, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)
The Pentagon is seen from the US Army Golden Knights parachute team plane ahead of their performance during the Twilight Tattoo ceremony as part of the Army’s 250th Birthday Festival in Washington, D.C., after taking off from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, US, June 11, 2025. (Reuters)

The timing of Israel's plan to attack Iran was top secret. But Washington pizza delivery trackers guessed something was up before the first bombs fell.

About an hour before Iranian state TV first reported loud explosions in Tehran, pizza orders around the Pentagon went through the roof, according to a viral X account claiming to offer "hot intel" on "late-night activity spikes" at the US military headquarters.

"As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity," the account "Pentagon Pizza Report" posted on Thursday.

While far from scientific, the Pentagon pizza theory "is not something the internet just made up," The Takeout, an online site covering restaurants and food trends, noted earlier this year.

Pentagon-adjacent pizza joints also got much busier than usual during Israel's 2024 missile strike on Iran, it said, as there are "a multitude of fast-food restaurants in the Pentagon complex, but no pizza places."

Pizza deliveries to the Pentagon reportedly doubled right before the US invasion of Panama in December 1989 and surged again before Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal he was fully aware in advance of the bombing campaign, which Israel says is needed to end Iran's nuclear program. "We know what's going on."

For the rest of Americans, pepperoni pie activity was not the only way to tell something was about to happen.

Washington had already announced it was moving some diplomats and their families out of the Middle East on Wednesday.

And close to an hour before Israel unleashed its firepower on Iran, the US ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, sent out a rather revealing X post: "At our embassy in Jerusalem and closely monitoring the situation. We will remain here all night. 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!'"