Fans baffled as Liverpool star Mohamed Salah goes offline

Cairo (AFP) – Fans were left baffled on Wednesday after Liverpool’s star Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah appeared to have deleted all of his social media accounts where his followers number in the millions.

The Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts of Salah, who is idolised in Egypt and Liverpool, went offline without warning a day after he posted a cryptic tweet.

“2019 Resolution: Time to get in touch, for real,” said the final tweet, screenshots of which were shared widely on social media.

Those navigating to his Twitter account on Wednesday could only see a message reading “Sorry, that page doesn’t exist!”.

On Instagram, the message read “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.” A similar message appeared on Facebook.

It was not immediately clear whether the shutdowns were deliberate.

Some fans speculated that Salah deleted his accounts due to a dispute he has had with the Egyptian Football Association over his image rights.

Others saw it as a possible new year’s resolution.

Salah has taken the Premier League by storm since signing for Liverpool in the summer of 2017, scoring 50 goals for the English club in just 72 appearances.

Earlier this month, Salah was named the African Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.