Mo Salah, an Egyptian footballer who plays for Liverpool, has been criticized over a recent magazine cover shot in which he is shown being embraced by a model.

Alessandra Ambrosio, a former Victoria’s Secret Angel, and Mohamed Salah appear together on the cover of GQ Middle East.

They are shown standing side by side in the first edition, whereas Ambrosio is shown embracing him from behind in the second, which has sparked some controversy.

In a behind-the-scenes clip, the actors may be seen sharing some laughs.

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Many people wrote in to express their delight that Salah was included in the spread despite the fact that he is a married Muslim man from a more conservative community.

“Can you imagine if a married Muslim woman did this?” one Twitter user asked.

The incident distracted people enough that they either didn’t notice or didn’t care that the Liverpool star had won GQ’s Man of the Year award for 2019.

Salah also received a barrage of backlash after sharing the two covers on his social media accounts, with many of his followers questioning his morals and shaming him for the photos.

One Instagram user said you, as a Muslim, had reason to feel embarrassed.

The failure or dissolution of Salah’s marriage was a common source of humor. The football player, who has millions of fans all around the world, has yet to respond to the negative feedback.

Images of female Egyptian celebrities who had received harsher penalty for similarly immoral acts were swiftly juxtaposed with those of Salah. Rania Youssef, an actress, risked a five-year prison term in order to wear a dress to a red carpet event that revealed her legs and upper thighs.

Salah is no stranger to posting personal images online; his Instagram is packed with candid shots of him living his life. Still, the GQ incident draws attention to the difficulty of his triple identity as an Egyptian, a Muslim, and a global star with a substantial fan following outside of the Arab world.

His backers, who pointed out that the striker is now an international superstar rather than just a local one in Egypt, questioned the validity of the criticism he was receiving for his picture with Ambrosio.