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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 Feb. - 1 March 2000 Issue No. 470
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Focus Heritage Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Whimsical star gone for now
Hossam Hassan, Egypt's most prolific scorer, and often its top troublemaker, will finish the remainder of the football season wearing a new uniform. The temperamental Ahli striker this week starts playing for Al-Ein, of the United Arab Emirates, where he will be on loan for three months. It would not be Hassan's first stint abroad but the move is certainly the most controversial.
Negotiations for Hassan, the first Egyptian to play in the UAE league, began in earnest during the African Cup of Nations (ACN) championships in which he scored three times before Egypt was knocked out by Tunisia in the quarter-finals. The agreement was cemented in Cairo when Ahli President Saleh Selim gave Ahli's unconditioned approval to the player's transfer. Some might say Selim was happy to get the problematic player out of the way for some time.
The transfer could not have come at a more opportune time for player and Ahli alike. Hassan's feud with management over more playing time, not just for him but for his twin brother Ibrahim, had mushroomed into a full-scale crisis as the twins boycotted practice, defiantly faced down German coach Reiner Tsobil and team manager Thabit El-Batal and even threatened to commit the ultimate sin: join downtown rivals Zamalek. "Why not?" Hassan asked at the time. "Ahli treats us like professionals and we will do the same. At the end of the season, we will consider our situation with the club and will choose among the best offers in Egypt and abroad."
Hassan's $300,000 sabbatical -- $125,000 for him and the rest for the club -- came with the season only half-finished. At a press conference in Ahli at which club officials were conspicuously absent, Hassan said he was overjoyed at being the first Egyptian player to play in the UAE, and for a team as strong as Al-Ein, which currently leads in the standings. He said he considered the move a "personal achievement" since he was the only player on the national team to have received an offer to play abroad after the ACN finals. "This means that I was in my top form in Nigeria and that I am still Hossam Hassan that everybody knows," Hassan told reporters.
He denied persistent rumours suggesting he had had a say in Ibrahim being included in the national team, even though the latter had not played for a full two months. "All this is fake," Hassan said. "No respected foreign coach would allow anybody to interfere in his work."
Hassan foresaw no problems should he decide to return to Ahli. "I do not think that the top goal scorer in 1998 and 1999, nor the best right back in Egypt and Africa [meaning Ibrahim] should be concerned over the renewal of contracts." On the contrary, he said, "Ahli should be concerned that we might not return."
Hossam Hassan
Following the press conference, Hossam Hassan told Al-Ahram Weekly how hurt he had been over what was written in the press about him and his brother's problems with Ahli. He said they had not met with any of the club's officials since the ACN ended. The cooling of ties between club and player is in marked contrast to last year's situation when Ahli refused to part with Hassan who had been offered to play in Turkey.
One victim of Hassan's transfer to the UAE, which runs up to 31 May, could be brother Ibrahim. With Hossam no longer around for support, Ibrahim will be at Tsobil's mercy, not least because of a Syrian defender whom Ahli recently signed and who is perhaps being groomed as Ibrahim's successor in the not too distant future.
As for Al-Ein, it stands to gain one of Egypt's all-time top scorers but at 33, Hassan may be past his prime.
So the enfant terrible of Egyptian football is gone for now, and a truce, albeit uneasy, has been declared. Hassan was the first to concede that the sojourn in the UAE would serve as a timely reprieve for both parties.
