Mohamed Salah (C) of Egypt scores during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Egypt and Congo at the Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria, Egypt, Oct. 8, 2017. Egypt won 2-1 and qualified to the World Cup finals. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

BASIOUN, Egypt, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- It was a quiet afternoon in Nagrig village of Basioun district in Gharbiya province, over 150 km north of Egypt's capital Cairo, with its vast greenery, landscape, spacious fields and numerous farmers.

However, everyone in the village, old or young, were talking with pride about Mohamed Salah, their fellow villager and currently Liverpool soccer star, who has recently guided his country to a rare qualification for 2018 World Cup after scoring Egypt's two goals against Congo in a crucial match this week.

"Salah loved to play football in Nagrig since childhood. His soccer talent appeared when he was young, so his father adopted it, took care of him, paid for his trips to other clubs outside the district until Salah rose as a star," Salah's uncle Zaki Abdel-Fattah Ghali, a retired banker, told Xinhua at one of Nagrig's fields.

He added that Salah's talent further shone when he played for Al-Mokawloon local team in Cairo, after which he drew the attention of European teams like Switzerland's Basel, Italy's Fiorentina and Roma and ended up in Britain's Liverpool.

During last Sunday's match between Egypt and Congo, Salah scored the first goal in the 63rd minute and the second in the 93rd from a penalty kick in the injury time.

Salah is seen by all Egyptians as a national hero who finally secured his country a seat in the world's top soccer competition after 27 years of absence. The win put Egypt top of African Group E, ahead of Uganda, Ghana and Congo with a game to spare.

"Salah has a strong will and his mind is faster than his feet," said his uncle, stressing that Salah had iron nerves to bravely decide to assume the last-minute penalty kick. "His colleagues avoided this situation, because it is either paradise or hell."

His cousin Abadah Saeed Ghali, some 10 years older than the 25-year-old star, said that Salah was "a soccer addict" since childhood, hailing Salah's manners besides his rare soccer skills and tremendous speed.

"Salah comes to the village when possible and walks among the people and takes photos with them so modestly. All Egyptians, not only those of Nagrig or Gharbiya province, are proud of him," said Ghali.

In a street near Salah's in Nagrig, a boy was walking in the village while wearing a red T-shirt with "M. Salah" printed on the back and Salah's number "10" in the front.

"We all adore Mohamed Salah," Karim Saber, 15, told Xinhua.

"I met Salah here before and took a picture with him near my school. He is so modest and respectful and he socializes with us as an ordinary person despite his fame," the boy continued. "For us, Salah is a role model and we like to imitate his skills when we play football."

In honor of Salah after Egypt's 2018 World Cup qualification, the governor of Gharbiya renamed Salah's former industrial high school in Basioun "Mohamed Salah Industrial High School."

The youth center of Nagrig will also be renamed after Salah soon, said Nagrig's mayor Maher Shetia.

"Salah highlighted his small village on the international map. He also built a charity and will build a school that costs millions, in addition to his donations to Basioun hospital with a complete ventilation room, incubations, an ambulance unit," said the mayor.

The system to raise young soccer players in Egypt focuses on holding football tournaments at schools and further train junior players at nearby soccer academies, then recommend those distinguished ones to annual admission tests in bigger clubs either in their own provinces or in Cairo, as in Salah's case.

Salah was a remarkable young player at his elementary school and he helped his school soccer team win Gharbiya province soccer tournaments for elementary schools.

"As his physical education teacher, Salah started with me at Nagrig elementary school and won two tournaments with our school soccer team at the level of the province. He drew attention due to his distinguished talent as well as skillfulness, speed and good manners," said Reda Masoud, who believed in Salah since his childhood.

Salah later played for Basioun's main football club for a couple of years before he left, by the support of his family, to join Al-Mokawloon club's branch in nearby Tanta and later moved to the main team in Cairo. Salah scored an unforgettable goal against the country's top club Al-Ahly during his first appearance in Cairo.

At Basioun club, boys from about 7 to 14 wore red T-shirts and white shorts as their uniform during their exercises at a private soccer academy where parents pay symbolic fees to engage their children in the promising sports.

"I dream of joining a big club like Al-Ahly or Al-Zamalek, but I need to spend some time here in Basioun first to learn more before any big club's player finders come here and discover me," Adham Birbish, 12, told Xinhua at the soccer academy, noting that Salah is his role model.

His 14-year-old peer Mostafa Mohsen said that the coaches give them training of the highest intensity including physical exercises, ball exercises and practical matches against teams from other villages to improve their skills and experience.

One of the coaches at Basioun club Reda Zerir, who said he had trained Salah with other coaches during his early teenage, emphasized that the real hero behind Salah's fame is his father who spared no effort to take him to several clubs in Gharbiya and Tanta to find a chance for his talented son.

Parents in Nagrig and other villages started to pay more attention to develop their children's football skills, particularly after seeing several famous players rising from the countryside.

"My son watches no TV channels but football. Parents should ask their children what they would like to be in the future, whether a doctor, an engineer, a football player or others and help them develop their interests since childhood," Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, father of a 10-year-old soccer trainee at the academy, told Xinhua, wishing his son would become one day like Salah.