Former Nigerian international Mikel Obi has slammed Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher for his frequent attacks on Mohamed Salah.
Carragher was outspoken in his criticism of Salah following the Egyptian’s controversial comments in the Elland Road mixed zone at the start of the month.
He accused Salah of speaking out to “cause maximum damage” while also saying that Salah arrived at Liverpool “known as the man who failed at Chelsea.”
Reacting to the statement via his The Obi One Podcast, the former Chelsea star blasted Carragher for disregarding the Egyptian international’s contributions to the success of the club, most especially showing disregard for African players and their tournament.
“We are talking about Liverpool here, we are talking about the Premier League, and you have somebody sat there in the studio, criticizing Mo Salah, and saying Mo Salah has never won the Africa Cup of Nations — that’s a failure, criticizing him.
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“He’s qualified for two World Cups, but he hasn’t won the Africa Cup of Nations. What’s that got to do with the Premier League? What’s that got to do with what we’re talking about?
“For some reason, why do you talk about Mo Salah being a failure at Chelsea? People fail – it’s about how you get the f— up.
“Look what he’s done since he failed at Chelsea. You learn more from failure, you get better from failure.. It’s how you get up when you fall, when you’re down there, and Mo Salah did that after Chelsea. He got up, he became stronger and became a better player.
“For somebody to criticize a young player at his early stages, to call that a failure – and that’s just coming from somebody that never won anything near what Mo Salah won.
“[Carragher] did not win the Premier League, did not win anything with his national team – abandoned his national team, honestly, because he wasn’t playing, and yet you are the player that is criticizing somebody for speaking out that he wants to play, but you retired because you were not playing. You quit because you were not playing.
“Mo Salah does not want to quit when it’s tough, when it’s difficult, he wants to be there and get the team out of this sticky patch, help the team, get the team back to where it belongs. That’s what you call a true leader, a true champion. Do I condone what Salah did? Not all of it. But has he earned the right to say I want to play football? Yes.”
