Mohamed Salah and adidas came together to surprise Sefton Park Rangers, a community girl’s football club in Liverpool, as part of the brand’s mission to highlight the importance of positivity from coaches, parents, supporters, and teammates in helping to make athletes believe You Got This.

Appearing from the sidelines during the girls’ Wildcats training session in collaboration with Tiber Football Centre, Salah was the ultimate supportive teammate, providing guidance, words of encouragement and advice as they practiced shooting drills. Throughout the session, Mohamed Salah brought to life adidas’ ‘Sidelines Essentials’ – showcasing the positive behaviours that people on the sidelines should adopt, which in turn could help encourage up to 20 million more athletes to play sport more regularly. 

These helpful behaviours include:

• Stay nearby and offer encouragement to break a negative mindset – stand by their side
• Understand when saying less is doing more and offer supportive reinforcement (cheering, clapping) – let players play
• Reiterate to athletes that they’ve got this using pre-determined gestures that signal to stay focused – game plan gestures
• Celebrate an athlete’s effort vs outcome for bigger, better self-worth and long-term improvement – focus on the effort
• Use post-match chat to encourage the athlete, saving any analysis for later– be the support act

The brand’s ‘Sideline Essentials’ have been created in response to its new global study, which uncovers the ‘Sideline Effect’, the impact of negative and positive behaviours from the sidelines. The findings revealed that 4 in 5 amateur athletes regularly experience unhelpful behaviour from coaches, parents, supporters and teammates¹. In partnership with sports psychologists and figureheads, the brand highlights common behaviours that many view as helpful but can act as a source of pressure and push many young athletes to quit.

The research surveyed over 12,000 athletes across 24 countries and found five actions were identified as having the most negative impact on young athletes’ desire to participate in sport. To counter this, adidas has created its ‘Sideline Essentials’, which have been developed with sports experts, validated by the findings from the research and endorsed by sporting icons including Son Heung-min and Anthony Edwards.

The ‘Sideline Essentials’ reveal how coaches, parents, supporters, and teammates on the sidelines can tackle the most common negative behaviours. They provide high-impact, positive action, which could mean the difference between millions of athletes heading out onto the field or quitting altogether.

Speaking on the importance of positive support from the sidelines, Salah said: 

“With any game of football, there is pressure to perform for your teammates, coach, fans and yourself, which is why it’s so important to have someone that believes in you. Encouragement is the key to unlocking potential. Support can come in many forms, and sometimes what may seem like a helpful gesture can in fact be the opposite, so it’s great to see adidas creating something so useful with their ‘Sidelines Essentials’. No matter the sport or the level, we all need positive support”

Molly Evans, Sefton Park Rangers coach, said: 

“As a coach, the most important part of my role is to provide positive support to empower the next generation of players. Today was one of those days where this was brought to life in the best possible way. have no doubt the support they received today will stay with them for a long time, and I truly hope everyone sees the value of adopting these positive sideline behaviours to help athletes channel their passion and inspire them to keep going. It’s so encouraging to see adidas understand the importance of this through their ‘Sidelines Essentials’, and for this to be brought to life today with a player who is a huge inspiration to these girls.”

As part of the brand’s wider long-standing commitment to keep next-gen athletes on every playing field of sport, it will distribute its ‘Sideline Essentials’ to longstanding partners and programmes. Recipients will include the Breaking Barriers program across Europe, the adidas Football Collective and With Women We Run, all of which are designed to support grassroots athletes and help make sport equal around the world.

READ MORE: adidas and Liverpool Football Club announce multi-year partnership