A lovely family photo taken by Mohamed Salah has caused an uproar after getting caught up in an ugly storm.
The Liverpool hero shared a cute photo with his family in front of the Christmas tree on Christmas Day, but this act angered some of the footballer's millions of fans.
The $90 million ace has been making headlines every year in recent years for his family Christmas photos.
The Egyptian, a proud Muslim, has faced backlash from Instagram users, with some calling him a “hypocrite”.
Salah has previously refused to bow down to the annual criticism and explained his decision to continue celebrating the holiday in Britain.
He previously said the decision to celebrate Christmas was a sign of “respect”.
A photo shared this week showed the 32-year-old, his wife Magi, and daughters Makka, 10, and Kayan, 4, wearing matching red pajamas.
The photo also featured a brightly lit Christmas tree and an unusually sized gingerbread man.
He captioned the photo, “Merry Christmas.”
However, not everyone was supportive of Salah's photo, which sparked a storm of discussion and over 215,000 comments.
Salah, who has more than 63 million followers on Instagram, was widely supported by other fans.
However, some people made a series of ugly comments that called out the soccer player's family by name.
“Delete it now,” one Instagram user wrote.
“We Muslims respect you and you are doing this in return.”
One person wrote that Salah's actions were “disgraceful”.
“After all these warnings, you still post this shameful post,” the troll wrote.
Another claimed the photo was an act of “hypocrisy”.
“Someone needs to tell him he has a right to believe whatever faith he wants,” the troll posted.
“If he wants to be a Christian, that's fine, but as a Muslim, what you're doing is hypocrisy.”
Salah never let his off-field drama affect his on-field performance.
On the other side of the coin, one of the many posts defending Salah said, “Raise your children to respect the traditions of other cultures and give them special memories to remember as they grow up.'' He is an inspiration to all.”
Salah is currently negotiating his next contract with Liverpool. He is nearing the end of his current contract, where he is reportedly expected to make nearly $435,000 a week.
Salah scored twice in Liverpool's win over Tottenham on Tuesday (AEDT) and returned to action for Liverpool against Leicester on Friday.
