Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Aboutrika is a former Egyptian international football player, who used to play as an attacking midfielder or as a second striker. He is distinguished as a playmaker and contributes to attacking and scoring goals, in addition to magic touches, dribbling and penetration skills, as his playing style has been compared to the famous French player Zinedine Zidane.
He started his football career by playing with Al-Tersana Club as a junior, then moved to the club's first team and was able to ascend with it to the Egyptian Premier League and played with them for 4 seasons. The tournament’s top scorer title at the time, in addition to 5 African Champions Leagues: 2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 4 African Super Cups. He also won 7 league titles, 3 cups and 4 local Super Cups with Al-Ahly Club. In 2012, he moved to Baniyas on loan, where he won the Gulf Club Football Championship with them, then returned again to Al-Ahly in 2013 and was able to win the 2013 African Champions League for the fifth time with Al-Ahly, and after the tournament ended, he announced that the Club World Cup would be the last Ultimate in the world of football.
He began playing international in 2001 with the Egyptian national football team and participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers as a key player for the first time, then the 2006 African Cup of Nations, where his brilliance began when he scored two goals and scored the last penalty kick that contributed to the Egyptian team winning the championship. Then winning the same tournament in 2008 for the second time in a row, then playing the World Cup for Confederations in 2009 and was able with his team to perform a good performance in the tournament, including the victory over the Italian team, the world champion at the time.
Aboutrika won the CAF award for the best African player in the continent 4 times and is the record holder for it. So far, about the historical scorer of the African Champions League with 33 goals, Abu Trika is also the historical top scorer for the Cairo derby (the top match) with 13 goals, and he is also considered One of the FIFA Centennial Club and one of the Hundred Club with 105 goals, and in 2014 Aboutrika was chosen by FIFA among the best players of the FIFA Club World Cup in its history, and his goal in Hiroshima was chosen as the best goal in the history of the Club World Cup, and in 2014 CAF chose Abu Trika as an ambassador for African football, and in January 2016 Abu Trika was classified among the list of football legends by the (International Federation of Football History and Statistics), and in May 2016 he was honored by FIFA among a group of football legends at the FIFA Congress Ceremony 66 in Mexico.
Abu Trika won many individual titles at the global, African and local levels during his football career, which made him one of the most prominent players in the history of Egyptian, African and Arab football and one of the legends in the history of Al-Ahly Club, before he officially announced his retirement from playing in December 2013, and after his retirement from the work of Abu Trika A sports analyst for beIN Sports since the 2014 World Cup until now.
His birth and upbringing
He was born on November 7, 1978 in the village of Nahya, a village in Giza Governorate. He grew up in a modest family with three boys and one girl. As a child, he worked as a day laborer in a brick factory with his uncle, and his hard work contributed to strengthening his muscles and preparing him physically. He continued his education until he graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Department of History, Cairo University. Abu Trika described that his childhood had great effects on his fondness and passion for playing football with his friends and neighbors.
Aboutrika began his journey in the world of football since he was seven years old, where he used to play in the streets of Nahya and participate in Ramadan tournaments. Through his companions who realized the skill of Abu Trika's foot, Abu Trika knew the path of clubs and youth centers to move to another stage of his football life. When Abu Trika was 12 years old, his friend Magdy Abed (goalkeeper of Smouha Club) guided him to the sports tests that were taking place at the time in the Tersana Club. Indeed, Abu Trika passed all the tests and joined the club. Within three years at Tersana, he was able to move to the Premier League team, where he spent two years, then joined Al-Ahly Club in late 2003.
The secret of the number 22
The number 22 is a special number that Abu Trika was famous for during his football career. The secret of his choice of this number is due to the fact that when he signed the contract with Al-Ahly Club three years ago, he traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, and went to the Prophet’s Mosque and while leaving the door, he found written number 22 on it. When he returned, he asked the club’s management to give him the jersey number 22.
Aboutrika was chosen as the ambassador of the United Nations World Food Program to fight poverty.
Aboutrika filmed a thirty-second humanitarian TV ad that focused on the tragedy of the daily death of about 25,000 people from starvation, including 18,000 children. Aboutrika comments about this humanitarian announcement, saying that he felt during the filming of the ad an overwhelming desire to help those in need as much as possible, and expressed his full readiness to visit any African country to send a message to the rest of the sports stars about the plight and suffering of millions of people from poverty and hunger.
In 2014, after his retirement, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) chose the former player Aboutrika and the former Malian player Frederic Kanoute as ambassadors of African football in appreciation of their wonderful career in football, and he was also chosen among the drawers of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
arsenal
At a young age, Abu Trika joined the junior team of the Tersana Club. At the age of 17, he was able to join the first team that was playing in the second division league during this period. Abu Trika had a major role in the team's rise to the Premier League in 2000, where he was the team's top scorer for two consecutive years and scored 23 goals as a top scorer for the Grievances League (Second Division League).
Al-Ahly
In 2003, some clubs such as Enppi and Zamalek tried to sign him, but his desire and efforts, Mahmoud Al-Khatib, vice president of the club at the time contributed to Abu Trika joining the Red Castle with a 3-year contract for Al-Ahly Club in the 2003 season from Tersana Club, and he wore the number 22 and began his football career With Al-Ahly club in the Tanta match in the Egypt Cup, which witnessed two goals, Al-Ahly club at the time was suffering from repeated losses in the General League in addition to its exit from the African Confederation Cup, which prompted the club’s management to contract with coach Manuel Jose to return again, the contract with players Abu Trika and other players represented a watershed point, as the team's results improved this season and were able to achieve consecutive victories.
During his 7 seasons since joining Al-Ahly club, Abu Trika was able to achieve many record achievements. He won the League Championship seven times, the Egyptian Cup three times, the Egyptian Super Cup 4 times, the African Champions League five times, the African Super Cup 3 times, and the FIFA Club World Cup 5 times. (Record)
Egypt national team
In 2001, Abu Trika first joined the Egyptian team under the leadership of Mahmoud El-Gohary and played as a substitute in several matches. Then he joined the team again on March 31, 2004 in a friendly meeting against Trinidad and Tobago that was held with the Arab Contractors and the team won 2-1, and then Marco Tardelli, coach of the team Al-Masry then included him in the squad as a key player that will compete in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and scored 3 goals in those qualifiers, Then he competed in the 2006 African Cup of Nations
Aboutrika also participated in the 2008 African Nations Championship and contributed to winning the championship for the second time in a row after his strong participation, as he was able to score 4 goals that ranked second in the list of scorers, including his important goal in the final against Cameroon after a cross from Mohamed Zidan And Abu Trika was chosen in the squad of the best players in the tournament. His achievements with the national team and Al-Ahly club contributed to CAF's nomination in the final list of the 2008 African Player of the Year award, in which he won second place and also won the African Player of the Year award (inside the continent).
Mohamed Aboutrika participated in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and contributed effectively after scoring 4 goals. But Abu Trika failed with the Egyptian team to qualify for the tournament after losing to the Algerian team 1-0 in the play-off match.
Egypt Olympic team
Aboutrika joined the Olympic team in 1999 under the leadership of coach Helmy Tolan in the qualifiers for the Olympic Games Sydney 2000, but he did not participate mainly.
After 13 years, coach Hani Ramzy summoned Abu Trika, Miteb and Ahmed Fathi to participate in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Egypt military team
Abu Trika participated with the Egyptian military team in 2005 and played in the African Nations Military Championship in the same year, and Abu Trika and his team were able to win the championship and qualify for the World Military Football Cup.
his retirement
Following the bloody events at Port Said Stadium in February 2012, the player announced his retirement from football, along with other players: Mohamed Barakat and Imad Miteb, but weeks after the accident, and given the club's association with its African matches, he decided to reverse his decision to retire and to attend training. In November 2013, after Egypt lost its chance to qualify for the 2014 World Cup against Ghana, Abu Trika's hope of playing in the World Cup after he crossed the 34-year barrier, he announced his intention to retire. This prompted Al-Ahly club officials to try with Mohamed Aboutrika, the Al-Ahly club striker, to persuade him to reverse his decision to retire. After attempts, the player decided that the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco would be the end of his professional football career. He retired on the evening of December 18, 2013.
In January 2014, the Confederation of African Football announced that the player had won the award for the best player in Africa (inside the continent), becoming the first football player to receive an official (non-honorary) award after his retirement, and he received the award in Lagos on January 9, 2014.
After his retirement, he decided at the time to go into the field of administrative work in football away from training and the media, and he traveled to Europe to obtain a training course in management and underwent study and training in Germany, but it did not last long.
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