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Egypt Mourns Abdul Salam's Gold Medal at the European Wrestling Championships
The issue of African athletes competing for European countries has come to the fore again. In the last month, Nigeria and the UK were seen quarrelling about whose side Anthony Joshua, the current WBO wrestling champion is. While the British media were all blissfully labelling him as British without any links to his ancestry and lineage in Africa, the African counterparts were also voicing that he is their own. For them, the British media should stop labelling people African or black only when they are involved in crime, even when they have not lived in Africa before. They should also desist from claiming those who achieve greatness as theirs, even when they have lived in Africa more than in the UK.
However, a different case scenario is now playing out in Egypt, where the people are mourning the gold medal won by their own Tarek Abdul Salam at the European Wrestling Championships instead of celebrating it. The reason for this is that the said medal was won by this Egyptian for Bulgaria and not for Egypt. Of course, playing Mega Moolah slot wouldn’t have favoured him to win if Bulgaria did not pick him and prepare him for the tournament.
There have been a lot of worries about African athletes who feel that their native countries are not doing enough to sponsor them or to project them in their chosen sports activities. Since people can always switch allegiance and represent whichever country they want, many of them are opting for several European nations. While the government of these countries and their sports ministries will not worry about these because they are the people who mismanage sports in the country, the masses who enjoy the games are not always happy about this. They are always eager to show their anger whenever their own is being claimed by another or whenever their brother represents another country instead of theirs.
However, Abdul Salam is not a relatively known star in the country. He is very popular and has done great things in boxing for the country before naturalising in Bulgaria. He has previously won gold for Egypt at the African Wrestling Championship in 2015. He also picked up a silver medal at the Mediterranean Wrestling Tournament. However, his anger for joining the Bulgarian contingents is that he was left out in the cold when he needed the support of his country most. He picked up an injury while training and the injury required a surgery, but the Egyptian Wrestling Federation abandoned him.
That was when he moved to Bulgaria and took up a job in a small shop to raise money to pay for the treatment. It was at this moment that the government of Bulgaria learnt about him and immediately offered him the country’s citizenship and the money to pay for his surgery. Of course, he accepted the offer and went ahead to represent the country.
But since you cannot run away from your blood, he is still not feeling totally right about that. That is why he posited that he wished it was the Egyptian flag that he was raising when he won.
This has been the cry of the Egyptian fans. They understand that their country never believed in the guy and that Egypt chased him into the hands of people that believed in him, and he is now achieving greatness for them.
The most painful part of this is that he was not born in Bulgaria and has not lived in Bulgaria more than one year. He was born and raised in Egypt, only to move to Bulgaria last year. So, the pain, anger, and frustration are very deep in the hearts of the Bulgarians who have been following him.
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