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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 28 January 1999 Issue No. 413 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 28 January 1999 Issue No. 413
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Focus Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Bibo the best
By Abeer AnwarBibo, the former Ahli and national team player has been chosen by FIFA as the best Egyptian footballer of the century for his 17-year national and international career.
He has an unrivalled record among Egyptian players. During his first match for Ahli in 1972 against Plastic he excelled himself, scoring a hat-trick after being substituted for Adel El-Gamal. After this he became a star player and was a member of winning Ahli teams in the League championship 10 times between 1975 and 1987 and in the Cup championship five times between 1978 and 1985.
He also helped take Ahli to victory in the African Champions Cup in 1982 and 1987 and in the Winners Cup four times between 1983 and 1993. He was also captain of the National Team which triumphed in the 1986 African Nations Cup held in Cairo. El-Khatib then decided to retire. His last match drew 100,000 fans, filling Cairo Stadium.
Bibo was the only Egyptian player to win the Golden Ball for best African player which was awarded to him in 1983 by the French magazine, France Football and from 1980-84 was regularly rated as one of the top 10 African players. In 1982 he was granted the Sports Order, First Class, by President Hosni Mubarak after Ahli won the African Champions Cup for the first time.
Bibo is also the only Egyptian player to have held the title of top African goal scorer with 37 goals to his name, 28 in the African Champions Cup and 9 in the African Winners Cup.
Commenting on the latest award El-Khatib said, "I am very pleased to be honoured with such titles after 12 years of absence from the football field. I think that the key to success for any player is his behaviour and talent on and off the field. That is my advice to all athletes, not only footballers, who want to be honoured and respected by all."
