The African Union responds to critics of Mohamed Salah

Despite the criticism that affected his technical level during the Egyptian national team’s opening match against Zimbabwe in the African Cup of Nations currently being held in Morocco, Egyptian star Mohamed Salah succeeded in redirecting the compass towards him from the point of decisive influence, after he scored the winning goal in the fatal time, giving the “Pharaohs” a positive start and three valuable points.

That goal was enough to give Mohamed Salah a deserved seat in the ideal lineup for the first round of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, held in Morocco, as he is a player capable of changing the features of the match in the intervening moments at a time when he did not show the level of ambition before he scored the valuable victory goal in the 90th minute.

The opening round of the group stage was not limited only to points calculations, but rather turned into a platform for the emergence of influential individuals who made the difference in complex matches, which was reflected in the choices of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which revealed the ideal lineup, and included an elite group of players whose performance had a direct role in the results of their teams.

The squad witnessed a prominent Arab presence with the presence of four players, led by Mohamed Salah, along with his compatriot Omar Marmoush, Algerian star Riyad Mahrez, and Tunisian Elias Al-Achouri, in a new confirmation of the strong Arab presence at the start of the continental championship.

Below is the list of the best in the first round of the continental tournament:

Goalkeeping

Botswana Gwatsioni Foucault

Defense line

Simi Ajayi (Nigeria), Samuel Koutou (Cameroon) and Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso)

Midline

Idrissa Gueye (Senegal), Alex Iwobi (Nigeria), Elias Al-Achouri (Tunisia) and Omar Marmoush (Egypt)

Offensive line

Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), and Nicholas Jackson (Senegal)