Gone with the wind!!

February 23rd, 2008 | by: Tamim | Comments(1)

no, i am not going to talk about the novel. in fact, what has gone with the wind was the best goal keeper in Africa essam el hadary who “left” his club al ahly secretly to join fc sion in Switzerland. with all controversies around the issue , i learned a lot of things. also latest updates of our immigrant birds.

i think that fc sion has gained popularity in egypt more than it enjoys in Switzerland itself. its name was the central issue in all sport pages in Egyptian news papers, also you could find people talking about the club and el hadary’s escape. after ahly’s match with el masry in the Egyptian league, every thing was fine until the next morning when el hadary decided to take the plane flying to Switzerland to sign for fc sion club for 1.5 million euro. he didn’t tell anyone at the club or even his friends.he just took his wife and went there leaving people thinking what? why?.

el hadary made advantage of the law of fifa that give any player who exceeded 28 years the right to leave his club after buying the rest of his contract by paying what he would have taken from the club which is stated in the contact if he were to play.

in their reaction, al ahly board decided to request from the federation to suspend el hadary from playing and decided that they won’t send his card to the club and will bring the issue to fifa. his coach manuel gose said that el hadary is the loser and that the club won’t collapse after him and he is ready to stand as a keeper instead of him if needed!!.

i don’t know if i should support el hadary or not. but the guy has his reasons, he is 35 years old and this maybe his last chance of playing in Europe before quiting football. also he always requested from the club to leave him to go play in Europe but they refused so he decided to do it the hard way. we also have to bear in mind that sion might be just a small stop and after it he will play in a big club. in spite of the reasons he had to do what he did, he did it in a completely wrong way. he lost the love of the fans , the respect of the club and he damaged all his great history just in one minute to the extent that one newspaper said “the collapse of the high dam”!!. on the other side, all zamalek fans as well as other clubs fans are happy about el hadary’s decision who always prevented their teams from beating ahly by his excellent performance, now they have a reason to cheer for their clubs!!.

what i have learned is:
1- you can expect anything in football both on and off the field!!.

2- one can be at the top of his career and the next moment he loses everything!!.

3- i am thinking of how many players would do what el hadary did!!!

4- newspapers has nothing to talk about, because the issue doesn’t deserve all this space given to it!!

5-the most important winner in this deal is the national team, as el hadary’s level will surely increase by receiving more professional training sessions. also he will now enjoy the support of all Egyptian fans not only ahly fans as an Egyptian playing in Europe like Ahmed hassan and Mohamed zidan.

watch el hadary speaking after signing for sion

Egyptians in uefa cup

Ahmed hassan: after returning late to anderlecht, he was fined with a large sum of money for the delay. however he played in the second half of anderlecht’s match against Bordeaux to help his team qualify to the second round. it is said that the club will honor him after leading the Egyptian team to win their 6th title.

Mohamed zidan: hamburg went to through the next round after beating zurich 3-1 in he return leg, but Mohamed zidan didn’t participate because of an injury at the back. however, he may play in hamburg’s match against bayern munchen.

Ahmed abu mosallem: the ignored left back at Strasbourg is very close to sign for the Romanian side rapid Bucharest. Ahmed was about to join crystal palace but he failed in getting a working license before the transfer season was closed. he is looking for a club after Strasbourg’s manager decided that Ahmed will be his third choice this season.

MIDO: after his very long injury mido played his first match since October as middlesbrough took on shieffeld united in the FA cup. the match ended in a draw and mido played very well. middlesbrough’s way is open to the final, because if they pass through shieffled they will meat Cardiff city which is weak. mido wishes he would compensate himself with a title after missing the African cup.