++EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE++

CAIRO, EGYPT: (MAY 17, 2020)(VPA-ACCESS ALL)



BASIC STORY:
"the Egyptian King" or the "pharaoh", those are the nicknames that were given to Liverpool's winger Mo Salah after he reignited his career with impressive debut season at anfield.
Salah is not only a world-class player, but also he became a symbol of struggling for achievement.
The Egyptian king stuck to a dream that has cost him great suffering since childhood, to be the Icon of success for Egyptians and Arab youth, which gained him great reputation and unmatched popularity.
In Egypt, Salah hogged the front pages of the national newspapers, graffiti portrait of him adorns the walls outside Cairo coffee shops, billboards at Cairo's streets inspires people, but this year his jersey and his moments of triumph will replace images of the sun goddess carved on Eid el-Fitr cookies.
Egyptian bakery-shop owner, Christine Amir, has decided to serve the Egyptian Muslim table with something unique marking the celebrating of Eid-el Fitr.
In tiny shop, Amir provides her customers with jars filled with cookies that bears photos of Salah by which highlights his successful journey.
Amir said the idea came across her mind to inspire the Youth with Salah success during the celebration of Eid.
Egyptian Eid Cookies or "Kahk" pronounced Ka-hk is a special dessert that is associated with happy occasions in the Egyptian traditions. These mouth watering cookies appear on the Egyptian Muslims’ table yearly in Eid-el fitr that comes after Ramadan and bi-yearly on the Egyptian Christians’ table in Christmas and Easter day. Also when a girl is married, her family packs the newly-wed pantry with this kind of cookies. It is said that these cookies have ancient origin as there are drawings in some of the Pharaonic temples illustrating the making of kahk.



TRANSCRIPTIONS OF SOTs:

SOT, Arabic, Bakery shop owner, Christine Amir:
"why Mohamed Salah in Particular? because I can see Mohamed Salah's achievement very symbolic to a struggle that led to a big success, he never gave up his dream, Mohamed Salah wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, his life wasn't easy at all, he exerted great efforts to achieve his success at young age, now he competes with world-class players, so I see that everybody should think about his/her dream and be very persistent to overcome any challenges to achieve it, that is why we names the cookies' jar with "Search for Salah inside you", just to encourage us to remember that we all have a dream to be achieved"


SOT, Arabic, Bakery shop owner, Christine Amir:
"we tried to collect the significant moments of Mo Salah, Of course his joining to Liverpool, National team, his jersey, special awards he got, his moments of triumph, his celebration with certain remarkable goals, so we've highlighted his path of success"


SOT, Arabic, Bakery, Kerolos Saleh:
"actually customers get attracted to the idea itself, when they see Mo Salah's Jar, then we explain to our customers why we produce it and what is the idea behind it, in which they feel very proud to have an Icon which overwhelming streets, also banners of his portrait are being placed everywhere, TV Ads and even cookies they eat, it makes people feel surrounded with Salah's success, this makes people feel more intense pleasure and be proud of him,"


SOT, Arabic, customer, Bassem Morad:
"I liked the idea of Mohamed Salah's Jar very much, I buy some for my friends, because everybody loves Salah so much, even those who are not fan of soccer, he (Salah) is a story of success for all of us, we feel very happy to see something related to him, also i love the variety of the cookies in the jar, the same like fortune cookies, every piece is different, cheerful and funny"