British Ugandan poet and author Musa Okwonga has previously published books on football and wrote a poem for the FA to celebrate their 150thanniversary.
His ‘Ode To Mo’ celebrates all that Salah has come to represent as he is about to play in the biggest game in European Club football in front of a global audience of billions having just received the coveted Golden Boot Award.
Ode to Mo
The Golden Smile of the Nile
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah
The Muslim Maestro! – Cairo’s Hero! –
The Golden Smile of the Nile!
The World’s Swiftest Egyptian
(Blink, you’ll miss him).
His scoring rate is one a game,
So once a match
Anfield becomes his prayer mat.
Of course he and this city go hand in hand –
They love a frontman of an all-action band –
Thus this Afro-haired angel is Top of the Docks.
He has three superhuman abilities:
Speed. Finishing. Humility.
The players’ choice,
The people’s choice,
He brings us together with his grin.
Mohamed Salah: in the Scousers’ crown,
He is the shining crystal
And the only force that can stop him
Is the final whistle.
– Musa Okwonga
The Rapid Response Unit has created a minute long film with Liverpudlians of varying ages and professions each delivering a line of the poem across city centre locations to be released on Saturday morning. The film will be played at screenings of the live match at several venues in Liverpool and on the large screen outside Lime Street station.