Mo Salahs Sauna Choice Sparks Controversy in Finland – Fans Shocked by His Stove Preference

Liverpool forward Mo Salah has sparked conversations in Finland lately—but this latest kerfuffle has nothing to do with the Egyptian superstar’s soccer skills.

Instead, it’s all about a sauna.

Salah, who is a known sauna lover and has a massive international following thanks to his incredible soccer talent, recently shared a story about his sauna on Instagram. And now, there’s a little blowback happening in the sauna-loving country of Finland, where the traditional wooden steam bath holds a hallowed place in the culture, for Salah’s apparent choice of an electric sauna stove.

Sauna Experts Assess the Stove

Finnish sauna enthusiast and author of The Finnish Sauna Claudia Martel said the stove pictured in Salah’s Instagram story looks pretty basic.

”It looks like you’re looking very traditional with an electric sauna stove there. Not too much luxury in that pic,” said Martel.

In 1985, the Guinness Book of World Records certified that a light bulb used in the world’s largest sauna (known as Vasta) holds a record of 2.5 million watts. In contrast, Salah’s stove in the Instagram story holds a wattage between 2,000 to 2,400 watts.

On the difference between a wood-burning sauna and an electric sauna, Martel said, ”If you’re going electric in your sauna, you’re not being very Finnish.”

Is Salah’s Sauna Choice a Surprise?

Meanwhile, as social media trolls from Finland are posting nasty memes of Salah in a sauna get-up contrasted with a wooden sauna stove, Martel had this to say:

”At the end of the day, I mean, he’s getting hot and sweaty in there, and there’s a good chance he’s going to send out some nice waves of steam.”