9 - 15 May 2002
Issue No.585
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 May 2002 Issue No.585 |
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Mortal gods
Fatemah Farag joins those mourning yet another symbol of a time now past
The news that Saleh Selim, hailed as "the maestro" of Egyptian football, had died, struck hard. Those who have never watched a football match in their life, supporters of rival teams, everyone, it seemed, came together to mourn the loss.
Tens of thousands converged on the Ahli Club on Tuesday as his body began its final journey. Traffic had all but closed down in Mohandessin by the time the body arrived at the Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque before proceeding to the family burial grounds in Six of October City. The funeral was punctuated by the sounds of grieving as men burst into tears and the crowds held aloft photographs of the legendary player. Senior government officials -- including Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Maher and Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi -- were among the host of public figures who joined the crowds in bidding the footballer a final farewell.
"Many sporting icons have passed away but never before have there been such scenes," said Abdel-Aziz El-Shafei, former Olympic swimmer, international bridge player, and a close friend of Selim's.
They first met at the Ahli Club in 1948. "I joined in 1947 as a swimmer and he joined the football team a year later. Every night we would meet by the swimming pool... It was a more innocent, more open-hearted time. Everyone played for honour, the honour of the game, the honour of the country, not for money."
It was also a golden age for Egyptian sports, when for the first, and only time, Egypt took second place in the World Basketball Championship, when the international successes of members of the swimming team made them instantly recognisable, and when the football field could boast players of the calibre of Mohamed El- Guindy, Ahmed Mekkawy and Hussein Madkour, alongside Selim.
"Selim's popularity stems not, I think, from him being the most skilful, for there were other very good players, but because, whatever position he held, he always upheld the highest standards," says El-Shafei.
Selim played his first official match for Ahli on 24 October, 1948, and between 1948 to 1959 was a leading member of the Ahli squad that won nine consecutive national cups. In 1958 he broke all previous records when, in a single match he scored seven goals against Al-Ismaili.
Selim's popularity is intimately linked to that of his club, Ahli, the wearers of the red T-shirt and, literally, the "national" club. When Selim joined, its arch enemy was the Farouk, later Mokhtalat ("mixed") Club and later still (post- 1952) Zamalek -- named after Cairo's smartest residential district. The player's links with the club were very much a family affair: Selim's father, Mohamed, was a leading member, as were his brothers, Abdel-Wahab, who died several years ago, and Tarek, who survives his brother.
Nor was his popularity hindered by his looks. Tall, slim, with slicked-back hair, soulful eyes and the perfect cheek bones of a classic matinée idol, it is hardly surprising that he should be one of only a handful of sports stars to have made a successful cross-over to cinema, starring in the sixties film Al-Shomou' Al-Sawda (The Black Candles).
For many of his friends and associates Selim's death is too recent, the loss too heartfelt, for them to talk to the press. Yet still newspapers have been filled with headlines such as "He was my ideal," "He was a man who adhered to his principles," "He will remain in our hearts always."
If it shows anything, the display of popular grief over recent days shows that the pantheon of public figures that emerged in the '50s and '60s still holds a strong grip on the collective consciousness. For Selim was not just a football player: within Egyptian sports he holds the same position as Abdel-Halim Hafez and Umm Kulthoum in Arabic music, or Abdel-Nasser in national politics. He, like they, has become a symbol of all the things for which it is worth striving, an emblem of the ideals, the duty and morality of a nation. And it is these, as well as the man, that are mourned.
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