Aboutrika is a familiar name to all football enthusiasts, especially within the region of Africa and Egypt precisely. He never played in Europe and is recognized as one of Africa’s most decorated and notorious players to have emerged from the African continent. The Egyptian played actively in Africa’s top clubs, where he was made famous during his reign.
Mohamed Aboutrika’s loyalty to Al Ahly was described as one of the greatest, despite many links with European clubs.
His decision to remain in the terrain of Africa is compared to other players who also had their stints with local clubs and in Africa.
Segun Odegbami played his entire senior career with Shooting Stars of Ibadan where he won three Nigeria Premier Leagues. Won the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria ending the tournament as joint top scorer.
Some of Segun Odegbami’s teammates who retained their loyalty to African clubs were Christian Chukwu and Emmanuel Okpala with Enugu Rangers, and Modashiru Babatunde who played in different African teams and many others.
Aboutrika has made the CAF shortlisted list three times for best player awards. In 2008, he finished runner-up to Emmanuel Adebayo of Arsenal, in 2006 he made it to the top 5 and in 2013 he made the top 10 list.
During his active years of playing (1997-2013) Aboutrika played mainly as an attacking midfielder and as a striker.
The 43-year-old began his career with Tersana FC in Egypt, where he had risen from the club’s academy to their senior team. In 2004, he sealed a move to Africa’s greatest club Al Ahly where he made prestige and played actively for 9 years. He left the club in 2013 for a loan to Baniyas Sports and Cultural Club, based in Al Shamkha, in the Baniyas area of Abu Dhabi. He saw his career dwindle and had to hang up his boots the same year.
Mohamed Aboutrika won 26 trophies during his years of play, among are 7 Egyptian league titles with Ahly, 5 CAF Champions League, 4 CAF Super Cup, 2 Egypt Cups and 2 Africa Cups of Nations among others.
He was BBC Africa Football of the year in 2008 and was voted the world’s most recognizable player in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
He’s part of the Egypt 2000 squad who ruled over the Africa cup of Nations and since the squad vanished Egypt has been struggling despite having some top players from Europe like Mohamed Salah and Mohamed Elneny.
Not only that, but he scored 184 club career goals coming from Al Ahly, since he debuted for Egypt he made 100 caps and scored 38 goals.
Aboutrika is a graduate of Cairo University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy.
