Hours after retaining the African Player of the Year award at the CAF Awards held in Dakar, Senegal, Egyptian star Mohammad Salah flew into Dubai to receive the Outstanding Arab Athlete award during the 10th edition of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Awards.
Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, presented the prestigious award to Salah during the colourful award ceremony held at the Shaikh Rashid Ballroom at the World Trade Centre, in front a packed crowd.
Expressing his delight at receiving the award, Salah, who had an exceptional campaign with Liverpool last season where he scored 44 goals in all competitions, becoming the Premier League’s top scorer and was also voted the league’s best player, said: “Having the honour of bearing the name of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum [Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai] makes the Creative Sports Award one of the most prestigious and wonderful awards, given that its value and stature are derived from Shaikh Mohammad’s highly prestigious position as number one in all fields of creativity.”
Salah was also named among the top three players in the world in 2018 and succeeded in leading Egypt to qualify for the World Cup in Russia. Despite carrying an injury he suffered in the Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, Salah managed to score twice for Egypt at the showpiece event in Russia.
“Yesterday I won the title of African Player of the Year for the second time,” he said. “And today I am honoured to be here with you to receive this prestigious award, alongside an elite group of top Arab athletes and sports leaders, among them young men from various Arab countries. The award will motivate them to realise more achievements in the future. I thank Shaikh Mohammad for launching such a grand award, which aims to inspire creativity in sports and develop sports in the UAE, the Arab world and the greater globe.”
It was another great moment for budding star and seven-year old Lamia Tariq Malallah, who received the award for the Local Emerging Athlete with Outstanding Success in Sports award. Speaking to Gulf News, Malallah, who won the gold medal in the International Gymnastics Championships — Greece 2018, and the silver medal in Germany, 2017, said: “It has been a very good year for me last year. I had worked very hard and I am thankful to the results that I have got and thus got nominated for the award. I think this is also the award for my dedication and I am looking forward for more good results for my country. I work every day for four hours, five days a week. As soon as I come from school I work from 4pm to 8pm. My immediate goal is to take part in the Youth Olympics and win medals for my country.”
Omar Al Marzouki, another young and promising UAE star who bagged the Outstanding Success Award by winning the silver medal in Equestrian (Individual Show Jumping) at the 2018 Youth Olympics Games and thereby became UAE’s first ever medal winner in Youth Olympics, told Gulf News: “To receive an award with Shaikh Mohmmad’s name will give me a huge boost. I know I have to work harder to better myself.”
Al Marzouki, who is a student of Emirates National School, added: “I took part in this sport from the age of six as my father was riding and helped me a lot. Now my goal is to improve and get better every day.”
