Many fans would count it a dream to just meet one of their heroes in public
One American Liverpool supporter had the chance to play a game against Salah
LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
By LUKE POWER
Published: 10:33 EST, 11 December 2024 | Updated: 10:33 EST, 11 December 2024
When Mohamed Salah isn't banging in the goals for Liverpool, he's often getting stuck into one of his favourite hobbies: chess.
The Egyptian star has previously revealed how he is 'addicted' to the game and plays it 'every day', as he once told Sky Sports.
Salah plays regularly on Chess.com - a website that allows users to play against others globally - and said he has acheived a rating of 1,400, which is fairly strong considering many don't surpass 1,000. One day he would like to play the legendary Magnus Carlsen.
Now a fan has told the incredible story of how he met Salah during Liverpool's pre-season tour of the USA and traded blows on the board with the forward.
The lifelong supporter bumped into Salah at a Starbucks in Pittsburgh while he was spending time with Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai, and a member of staff.
Knowing that Salah was an avid chess player, he plucked up the courage to invite him to play. To his disbelief, Salah was keen. But how did their games go?
Mohamed Salah has previously said he is 'addicted' to chess and that he plays every day
A Liverpool fan has described how he bumped into Salah and ended up playing two games of chess against him
'I pulled up a chess board and turned the screen from probably 20 feet away in my chair towards him, the fan told Men in Blazers.
'He was talking to a fitness coach or something like that. When he made eye contact with me and saw the board, he immediately smiled and was like: "Oh, yeah, you wanna play? Yeah, we could play." So he said, "tell me your username."
'So I went over, held Mo Salah's phone, added myself on Chess.com, and then after they left and went up to their hotel room, a couple of minutes later I got a challenge: Mo Salah wants to play a game of blitz chess with you.'
The fan tells how he was 'very nervous' and that his 'heart was racing', meaning that Salah took the lead and caused him to resign, not wanting to waste the legend's time.
But Salah was gracious towards his opponent and, when he later saw the fan in the hotel lobby by the coffee shop, he said: 'You played a great game, you played very well.'
For most fans, that experience would have been a dream enough, but the story wasn't even over for this American fanatic.
After the fan went home from work, he checked to see if Salah was online on Chess.com. He was.
'He challenged me to a game of chess. So again, heart rate through the roof, and shotu-out to the Jobava London opening, I got him with a little trap, won his queen, and had a nervous finish.
Salah was on Liverpool's pre-season tour of the USA and met the fan in a coffee shop in a hotel lobby
'(I) freaked out, jumped out of the car after winning, nobody would believe it so I don't even brag about it.
'For me it's the special connection to Mo.'
LiverpoolMohamed Salah