Flair Magazine The FIFA World Cup in Russia is now just weeks away and fans in Egypt are getting ready to support their national team. Egypt made history by qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™ after a twenty-eight year wait, and ever since the team’s official qualification, Twitter has witnessed on-going conversation around the tournament and the national team.
Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah), who broke the record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season, has become the third most mentioned football player globally on Twitter the past six months. His ranking comes after Portuguese and Real Madrid (@RealMadriden) forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) (#1 most talked about), and Argentinian player and FC Barcelona forward (@FCBarcelona) Lionel Messi (#2 most talked about).
Furthermore, following an injury sustained during his appearance at the UEFA Champions League final, millions of Egyptians were worried that Salah wouldn’t make it to the World Cup. Yesterday however, the player Tweeted that as a “fighter”, he is confident he will make it to Russia and make the country proud. With more than half a million likes, the Tweet was the player’s most Retweeted Tweet to date.
Research revealed that 98% of those surveyed in Egypt are very excited for the 2018 FIFA World Cup™, whereas in 2014, only 76% watched the games. The survey also revealed that 74% of Egyptian fans plan on watching the games with friends and family at home. When asked which country will win the World Cup, Germany took the lead with 27% of the votes, followed by Egypt with 24% of the votes.
Earlier this year, the Egyptian national team launched its Twitter account under the name of @Pharoahs to keep fans up to date with all World Cup festivities. The full squad, consisting of 23 players, has joined Twitter over the past few years, including Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah), Abdallah Said (@ElSaid), Ahmed Fathi (@AhmedFathi), Ahmed Hegazi (@Hegazi), Mahmoud Trézéguet (@Trezeguet) and Mohamed El Neny.
