Cairo academy aims to produce future Salahs
Cairo: On a perfectly manicured grass field in Cairo’s gated suburb of Madinaty, boys train in red football jerseys and dream of becoming the next Mohamed Salah.
At the Liverpool Academy, football players aged five to 18 train on the grounds of the British International School, nestled between brand new roads and development blocks.
“Here! Here!,” shouted Yehia Hammad to his team mates, waving his arms as they hurried around the field responding to directions given by coaches.
Yehia’s favourite player? “Mohamed Salah,” he answers with pride, sporting a thick mop of hair which resembles that of Liverpool’s high- scoring Egyptian international
Egyptian parents pay a subscription fee of about $ 453,371 euros a year to enroll their children in the Liverpool Academy in Cairo
● striker.
“I love football because it’s my favourite thing, my life, and my thoughts and everything,” said Hammad.
The young boy was accompanied by his father, Mostafa Hammad, a manager at a Danish pharmaceutical company, who also loves the sport.
EMULATING SALAH Yehia Hammad’s dream is to be the next Salah, who rose to stardom in the English Premier League from humble beginnings in a village north of Cairo, in the Nile Delta.
“Even better than him,” said Hammad, cheekily.
To enrol him in the academy, Hammad’s parents pay a subscription fee of 8,000 Egyptian pounds ( about $ 453,371 euros) a year. Counting in equipment, competition fees and sessions with a nutritionist, his parents spend more than 22,000 pounds per year, in a country where the average monthly salary is less than $ 250.
Mostafa Hammad said that previously there was a lack of international football academies in Egypt teaching children fundamental skills.
“With the presence of these academies, these values, this consistency, I think the coming period will produce excellent players in Egypt,” he said.
The Liverpool Academy is not focused on producing the next Salah, according to head coach David Ridler, a British former professional footballer who came to Cairo six years ago to run the Madinaty academy.