Al Mokawloon reacts to Todd Boehly’s Mohamed Salah academy claims

Al Mokawloon have called out Chelsea co-owner Todd Boehly after the American claimed that Mohamed Salah is a product of the Chelsea academy, according to Goal.

The Chelsea chief appears to be unaware that Salah is a product of the Egyptian club, having progressed through their youth ranks.

Boehly told the SALT Conference: “We have one of the best academies in the world. If you look at what our academy has developed, our academy is Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne.

“More recently Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Mason Mount, Trevoh Chalobah.”

Boehly may have been right about Chelsea having one of the best academies in the world, but citing Salah as a product showed a lack of understanding, and Al Mokawloon were not having it.

A member of the club’s board of directors, Mohamed Adel Fathi, responded to Boehly’s comments via a Facebook post: “What the new owner of Chelsea says shows a lack of understanding. 

“Mohamed Salah is a source of pride for the Al Mokawloon Club and Egyptian and Arab football, and we are honoured that he is one of our sons.

“The whole world knows Salah’s career and how he started with us, but it seems that the owner of Chelsea is the only person in the world who is ignorant of this information.”

Salah spent two years developing his craft in the Al Mokawloon first team, contributing 12 goals and six assists in 44 appearances before earning a move to FC Basel in Switzerland.

He made a name for himself at the Swiss club and put himself on Chelsea’s radar after scoring against the Blues in the 2013/14 Champions League campaign.

It was not long until Chelsea snapped him up from Basel, but he spent the next two campaigns on loan spells with Fiorentina and AS Roma. 

He eventually joined Roma on a permanent transfer and rebuilt his reputation before returning to the English top flight with Liverpool in 2017.

He has since become an Anfield icon winning several trophies, including the Premier League, Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Boehly has not been a passive owner since taking over Chelsea and has made some daring suggestions about how the Premier League can improve.

However, some of his ideas, including an All-Star game to generate money to support the rest of the football pyramid, have been met with backlash by a majority of sports fans.