Messi faces Egyptian ire over 'humiliating' boots gesture

Football superstar Lionel Messi is facing a backlash in Egypt after his apparent donation of a pair of boots for a charity auction was branded “humiliating to all Egyptians” by a prominent talkshow host and an official from the country's football association.

The Argentinian, who plays for Barcelona and is a multiple world footballer of the year, made the gesture in an appearance last week on the MBC Masr channel's 'Yes I am Famous' show.

But several high-profile critics reacted angrily, suggesting that Egypt did not need Messi's charity, urging him to donate his shoes to his own country because Argentina was “full of poverty”.

The backlash was stirred by Said Hassain, a member of parliament and television presenter, who took exception to Messi on his own talkshow, removing his own shoes and offering to send them to Argentina.

“Whose shoes do you want to sell, Messi? How much do you think it will get? You don’t know that the nail of a baby Egyptian is worth more than your shoes? Keep your shoes to yourself,” he said.

“Messi, we Egyptians are 90 million people, who have pride, we have shoes. We don’t eat off the money of other peoples’ shoes... It’s humiliating to all Egyptians and I do not accept this humiliation... We Egyptians have never been humiliated before during our 7,000 years of civilisation.”

Azmy Megahed, a spokesman for Egypt’s football association and a guest on the same show, said: “If he intends to humiliate us, then I say he’d better put these shoes on his head and on the heads of the people supporting him … Give your shoes to your country, Argentina is full of poverty.”

But MBC Masr presented Mona El-Sharkawy who interviewed Messi, said the gesture had been misinterpreted.

“This is so false. It’s a trend on our show that we take a souvenir from our guest and put it on auction for charity,” El-Sharkawy told news agency Ahram.

“I am surprised, I didn’t say we will be giving it to charity in Egypt or any other place. I don’t know why they said he is presenting it to Egypt. This was never said.”

There was also support for Messi from Mido, the former Egyptian forward, who tweeted: “The most precious thing the writer owns is his pen ... and the most precious thing the footballer owns is his shoes. I hope we stop the false accusations.”

Messi has not commented.