Mo Salah's lookalike reveals that he's replaced him in some ads

Fizzy curly hair and a wide smile engulfed in a beard will get you the closest you could ever get to Salah himself.

Egypt's legendary footballer Mohamed Salah runs on a pretty tight schedule given his international and regional sports commitments. Enter his doppelgänger, Ahmed Bahaa, an Egyptian engineer who's been subbing in for the Liverpool star in a couple of commercials.

The Mo Salah lookalike made the revelation during a televised interview aired on Al-Nahar TV over the weekend, surprising both the presenter and viewers.

"Salah of course can't stay for long to shoot a single ad. I would spend a couple of days [shooting] here, while they complete [filming] with him in England," Bahaa explained on how he worked on several commercials with the Liverpool forward. "This is just to speed up the process because he doesn't have a lot of time to spare." 

So what commercials did he feature in? According to him, he's been in a Vodafone and a Pepsi commercial among a few others, though he only appears in wide shots, as the BBC reported

During the interview, Bahaa jokingly lamented about how he always wanted to be a football player but went into engineering instead. As you'd imagine, since not everyone has the eye to differentiate between lookalikes, the electronics engineer is frequently stopped by Salah fans who want to take pictures with him. 

Bahaa - who bears an uncanny resemblance to the popular footballer - was catapulted to fame after he was spotted watching the Liverpool forward play in the semi-final of the Champions League. 

Both men ended up meeting, and it was not over before a viral selfie was snapped.

"[Mohamed Salah] was taken aback [when he saw me], he said to me he feels like he's standing in front of a mirror, but that it is he who looks like me because I am older," Bahaa said at the time

Putting that aside, Salah has actually more than a couple of doppelgängers

When it comes to his skills and his journey in the football world, Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah is unparalleled; there's no arguing that. But, the same can't be said when it comes to his looks. 

Earlier this year, a Kuwait-based Arab slaughterhouse worker who looks quite like Mo Salah went viral onlineWhile in June, Egyptian man Ahmed Sayed Nada, a sales representative from Egypt's city of Damietta, stole the show after being spotted at Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2019. 

But in fact, a handful of lookalikes have surfaced online in the past few years thanks to the growing interest of Salah's fans. From a van passenger to a social media star, fizzy curly hair and a wide smile engulfed in a beard will get you the closest you could ever get to Salah himself. 

Saudi oil giant aims to nationalize 90 percent of its workforce by 2020

Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to nationalize all sectors.

Saudi Arabia has been taking serious steps towards nationalizing local industries in a bid to tackle chronically high unemployment rates among citizens. The country's largest firm and the most profitable company in the world, Saudi Aramco, recently announced it's joining in on these efforts. 

The revelation came during an address by the company's vice president, Mohammad Al Shammary, at the opening session of the three-day Saudi Logistics Conference. In his speech, the official said the company has already "launched a comprehensive localization program in an effort to develop services to contribute to raising the level of local content in the field of energy to reach 90 percent by 2020."

This increase of local content will lead to a rise in the contributions of small and medium companies to the kingdom's gross national product, which will, in turn, enable the firm to provide thousands of employment opportunities to nationals working in the energy industry. 

Source: Reuters

Saudi Aramco is currently working on developing the King Salman Energy Park, as Al Shammary stated, which is being built on an area covering more than 50 square kilometers. The city is expected to attract the largest global suppliers and service providers in the energy sector. 

"Once completed, the city will contribute the annual income of up to SR22 billion to GDP. It will also help the localization of more than 22 new facilities, in addition to providing tens of thousands of direct jobs," the executive added. 

In addition to building a huge futuristic city, the company is also exploring the introduction of artificial intelligence to its facilities. 

Saudi Arabia is still moving towards nationalizing its workforce

Source: Arab News

Despite the fact that the Saudization of several industries is facing major obstacles, Saudi authorities aren't slowing down efforts to nationalize jobs in the country. In contrast, officials are signing more agreements to Saudize major parts of several sectors. In September, the kingdom announced it will be nationalizing large parts of its agriculture industry

Saudization comes in line with the kingdom's Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program. Both initiatives are focused on decreasing the country's chronically high unemployment rates by nationalizing jobs usually filled by expats. However, in recent months, many have criticized these efforts and questioned their success given the fact that local unemployment rates have been unaffected by the exit of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers from the kingdom. 

Though vacancies are opening up for locals, Saudi business owners have previously disclosed having difficulty getting nationals who are "accustomed to undemanding work in the state sector and generous unemployment benefits" to work for them. Some local private companies even went about finding loopholes to a law that required them to hire a specific percentage of Saudis when they couldn't find locals to fill up jobs. They resorted to a process called "fake Saudization," which involves hiring Saudis and paying them low salaries not to work but to be legally registered as workers at their establishments.

Saudized sectors at a glance

The kingdom issued a royal order early September banning local government departments from seeking consultancy services from foreign firms and limiting them to working with Saudi companies instead. 

In recent months, the country partly nationalized its retail sector, which was previously dominated by expats and foreigner input. Last year, there were 330,000 nationals working in the retail and wholesale sector, versus 440,000 (men and women) in 2019.

The country's public sector in its entirety is also moving towards Saudizing its entities. In 2017, the kingdom's Ministry of Civil Service ordered all ministries and government departments to terminate contracts with expatriate workers within three years. Only Saudi nationals will be able to replace those who lose their jobs in the government.