Dedication comes first

Some call him quixotic; others say he has achieved the impossible, reconciling Egypt's two main rival football teams, if only briefly. Temperamental, confident, and intent on running things his own way, he has been described as "a coach to the hit".

Successful, controversial, Mahmoud El-Gohari's fans insist he is "the" national coach -- he brought Egyptian football up to an unprecedented professional level by taking it to the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy after a 56-year absence from this major sporting event. He also brought back the African Nations Cup in 1998, after 12 years away from Egyptian soil.

The Egyptian legend El-Gohari -- the only man to have won the African Cup of Nations as a player and coach -- was honoured last week by the African Football Confederation (CAF). The man who led Egypt to victory in the African Nations Cup in 1998 was presented with a gold medal at the CAF congress in Tunisia.

The award recognises the achievements of El-Gohari both as a player and coach and for his contribution to the game in Africa. He has won the African Nations Cup as a player in 1959, and as head coach of the national team when Egypt claimed the title in 1998 in Burkina Faso.

"I'm feeling very good about it," El- Gohari told the press following the presentation in Tunisia. "I thank CAF for bestowing the honour on me and I hope to continue improving my career."

El-Gohari is currently in charge of the Jordanian National Team and has led it to the finals of the Asian Cup for the first time in its history.

Despite leaving the Egyptian team after their unsuccessful campaign at the last Nations Cup in Mali in 2002, El-Gohari is still following the fortunes of the Pharaohs.

"I follow every match and every competition they play in," he says. "The team is in good shape and I'm sure they can advance to the quarter-finals of this Nations Cup," he said, adding that the Pharaohs could do very well in Tunisia if they kick- off to a good start against Zimbabwe (which they did) and Algeria. But El- Gohari agreed that expectations could weigh heavily in this competition on the team's star striker Ahmed "Mido" Hossam.

"Sure the team will be expecting great things from him and I hope he will be one of the stars of the tournament," he said. "But he will need to be calm and he must be patient in the face of the tough marking he's likely to face at this tournament."

El-Gohari -- former head coach of the Egyptian national team -- became the only national coach to train the two top powerhouses in the game, Ahli and Zamalek. El-Gohari also remains unparalleled among Egyptian coaches in terms of publicity. He has achieved the impossible; coaching the national team and the country's two main football clubs bringing three giants together, and winning the allegiance of rival, albeit equally zealous groups of fans.

Like most Egyptian youngsters, the 66- year-old El-Gohari started playing football at the age of eight in the streets of the city. He then moved on to the Helwan juniors team, witnessing the club's progress from a vacant lot to a proper pitch. His interest in football knew no bounds. Selected by his physical education teacher to play on the school team, he participated in tournaments against other schools attended by football scouts looking out for promising young players.

From there, he made it to Ahli -- recruited to the U-18 team. It was only when he joined the Military Academy in 1955 that his career really took off. An academy team was formed, and El- Gohari's experience with Ahli landed him on the team playing the Soviet Union.

"I was unknown, but the fans started inquiring about me as a new player," he recalls. "It was my first introduction to football fans as a junior player."

The consequence was fame.

At the age of 18, El-Gohari became known as an international player even before his reputation at home had been formed -- an unusual turn for a football player's career. "Again I was lucky when Ahmed Mekkawi, Ahli's top star striker then, was injured," he recalls. "I was his temporary replacement. Ahli officials were taking a risk, but I succeeded. I continued to play on Ahli's first team as well as on the military team."

An Ahli striker from 1955 until 1964, El-Gohari saw the team win the National League Championship five times and the Cup Championship twice. He played 14 international matches with the military team, and 27 games as part of the national team, from 1957 until 1964. Under El- Gohari, Egypt won the African Nations Cup in 1959; El-Gohari scored the winning goal and was named the tournament's top scorer.

El-Gohari -- who is a father of two daughters and a son -- was forced to retire from the field at the age of 24.

"It was the hardest moment of my life," he says. "What eased the pain was my coaching instinct. I used to train on my own daily, while the team trained three days a week." He started out training Ahli's juniors and discovered the rewards of encouraging promising new players, "because," he says, "I always remembered myself as a player."

His 37 years of training and playing brought many experiences. Among them, he worked as assistant coach to the Ittihad club of Jeddah for two years, then as coach for another year, acquiring experience through his work with the team's resident German expert. In 1982, on his return to Egypt, he was asked to train Ahli's first team.

"There was much speculation because I was only 42 and responsible for one of the country's best teams." His trepidation was for naught: "We won the African Champions Cup for the first time and the National Cup for two consecutive years. We were runner-ups in the African Champions cup in 1983. It was a great achievement as a national coach."

In May 1988, after a season in the Emirates, El-Gohari presented a project for the development of football in Egypt to the People's Assembly. After a long discussion, it was approved, and he took over as manager of the national team: "It was a very hard task. I had to build a good rapport between myself and the players. It took us two months just to prepare for a serious 18-month training programme. By the time we reached the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the players had changed, physiologically and mentally. The team sacrificed everything for football, and a bunch of amateurs became professional players."

The 1990 World Cup marked Egypt's first participation in 56 years.

"Not many of the other teams were very enthusiastic about us," he says. "They thought we were a weak team coming from Africa. But we stunned the world by our 1-1 draw with the powerful Dutch team. We were even close to wining -- and in fact according to foreign critics we did deserve to win."

Even though the winning title did not go to his team, like in every match, and event, and incident he is involved in, the one thing his team was commended on, was their unwavering attempt to play their very best. And that, perhaps, is what El-Gohari will be remembered in the pages of history: giving 110 per cent 110 per cent of the time.