A nAtion prAys for its hero
For a country that eats, sleeps and drinks football, qualifying for a World Cup has always been our greatest desire. Unfortunately, Egypt have rarely qualified for the World Cup. It’s strange because we are the biggest football nation in Africa.
No country has ever won more Africa Cup of Nations titles than us. We have won seven ACN titles and in a glorious four-year period from 2006 to 2010, we became the only team in history to win three ACN titles in a row.
But it’s always the World Cup stage that we craved. Egyptians always want to see their national team play with the world’s best on the biggest stage.
The last time our team went to the World Cup, I was just 10. It was the Italia 1990 and I still remember how people were dancing on the streets in Egypt after our team held the mighty Netherlands — a team that had the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Ronald Koeman — to a 1-1 draw.
We also drew with Ireland, but lost to England and bowed out of the group stages. That remained our only World Cup memory as our next six World Cup qualifying campaigns in Africa ended in tears.
So, when this team finally ended decades of World Cup heartbreak by qualifying for the big tournament in Russia, our joy knew no bounds.
Yes, Egypt are on the World Cup pedestal again after 28 long years!
And, of course, we had the phenomenon — Mohamed Salah, the most famous Egyptian on the planet.
It was his goal that booked us the World Cup ticket last year in the qualifying campaign.
We have had some fantastic players in the past, but Salah is unique. It was clear from a very early stage that he was special. A player who could make the ball talk, dribble past defenders and score the most sumptuous of goals.
He was beginning to make heads turn at AS Roma but what he did in his first season at Liverpool made the Egyptian hearts swell with pride. It was unbelievable to see an Egyptian player win the Premier League’s Player of the Year award and the Golden Boot for being the top scorer!
Now, many legends in world football have compared Salah to the two biggest superstars — Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Many even believe that Salah is a contender for the Ballon d’or.
This kind of love and respect for Salah from the footballing world made us dream of our first win in a World Cup match. We have never tasted a win in our two previous appearances in the World Cup (1934 and 1990) and we think that the presence of one of the world’s best players in our team has given us a great chance to win matches in Group A and qualify for the knockout rounds for the first time.
But the Egyptian hearts were broken when Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos’ terrible foul on Salah during the Champions League final on May 26 left him with a serious shoulder injury.
The whole of Egypt is furious with Ramos. I have been following the Egyptian press, and what I could see is that the public in my country is very angry. They believe that it was a deliberate attempt by Ramos to hurt Liverpool’s best player as the Los Blancos were desperate to win that final.
The Egypt National team doctors said Salah would recover in three weeks’ time. If he does, he can play at least the final group game against Saudi Arabia on June 25.
Now, we can only pray for his speedy recovery. It’s a very sad situation as even my nine-year-old daughter was heartbroken when Salah got injured in the Champions League final.
Mohamed Salah isn’t just a football superstar anymore. He has become the symbol of Egyptian pride. And if he can’t play at the World Cup, that will be the biggest tragedy for a football-obsessed country that had waited 28 years to play in the biggest sporting event of them all.
Alaa Aly Mohamed hails from Cairo, Egypt. He is the Chief Translator at Khaleej Times