After winning their sixth African Cup title over rivals Cameroon, Egyptian players have grabbed the attention of many European clubs like Lyon, Getafe, and Manchester City.
Egypt has a handfull of players playing outside of Egypt in great leagues like the EPL and the Bundesliga. But to the surprise of everybody witnessing their formidable play during the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana, more than 90 percent of the team's players were a product of the domestic league. On that note, one name that jumps out to the Egyptian fans is Al-Ahly star Mohammed Abo Trika.
Since joining the Egyptian African Club of the Century, Abo Trika has won 13 titles with Al-Ahly, helping the club win the Bronze Medal at Fifa Club World Cup 2006. On the international level, he has won two consecutive African titles with the Egyptian National team.
The 29-year-old scored the title winning goals for the Egyptian National Team in 2006 against the Ivory Coast and against Cameroon in 2008.
In addition, he was also nominated for the African Footballer of the Year in 2006 going against Michael Essien and Didier Drogba, who play for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Does Abo Trika play for any of those big clubs in Europe? Not that I know of.
Right before the 2008 African Cup of Nations, many football experts nominated the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, and Morocco to win the title based on how many players were playing in the different clubs of Europe.
Despite winning the 2006 version of the African Cup of Nations, Egypt was predicted to leave the tournament in the first round of the competition. But they proved experts wrong and won it.
Basing predictions on how many players the Ivory Coast has playing in Europe does not provide enough proof that they can win the African Cup of Nations.
The Egyptian league has taught world-wide experts that African-European fame does not mean it all. The key difference noted in Ghana 2008 was the sense of unity that the Egyptian national team exemplified.
When I think of the Cameroonian national team, Samuel Eto'o pops up.
When I think of the Ivory Coast national team, Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure pop up.
When I think of the Egyptian national team, all 11 players pop up!
And as Greg Lalas wrote in his New York Times article "Egypt Ready to Take on the World," "Egypt are the Brazil of Africa. Here on the continent, they know this. The rest of world will find out soon enough."
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7 months ago
Watch Egypt playing Argentina in Cairo March 26
7 months ago
I watched the AFCON. Egypt were awesome as a team. If an African team makes a run in 2010, I would say Egypt and Ivory Coast could go far
7 months ago
Yup, Africa is on the run right now...we could see suprises next World Cup in South Africa, MAJOR suprises.
7 months ago
Egypt were very impressive and I'd definately think they could go far at the 2010 World Cup here in SA.
7 months ago
Can anyone explain why Egypt have been able to dominate in the African Cup of Nations yet have only managed to qualify for the World Cup twice in their history? And one of these was in 1934! This seems very strange to me.
Do the players concentrate all of their efforts on the ACN and then not care so much about the World Cup or have they just been unlucky (although surely you can only be "unlucky" so many times...)?
from 7 months ago
Well they weren't lucky at the African Nations Cup, that is for sure. As for the World Cup question It is a fair point and I have no idea why they haven't qualified.
7 months ago
Egypt have always had decent players, but never the had the coach that would organise them and play attacking football. Players would score a goal and defend which is not always a good thing to do against some other strong teams, but now, they have a good coach that would take them to different levels and hopefully to the WC 2010
The other reason that Egypt always came second in the qualification group to Cameroon, Tunisia or Ivory Coast, so they were close many times, so yeah you could say unlucky, but I still think the main reason was bad coaches and passive football
from 7 months ago
Yeah, nice explanation and really solid points there dude. But I think the main cause of them not qualifying to the world cup is the quality of the players. I mean, Egypt has had some players that really SUCK! It was only you know..Mido who would be the star of the team. Another possible cause is Egypt didntt have a true play maker. Abo Trika is now the best play maker I'd say in Africa. He's a very exciting player, he just jumps out from all the other players. In addition, he's modesty is unbelievable!
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