Dr. Hossam Badrawi Official Website
Captain Safwat Abdel Halim, the Al-Ahly club player, who I consider characters from playing football in Egypt, passed away two days ago. We were in the Al-Ahly U-16 team led by Captain Mahmoud El-Gohary, who became the most famous coach in Egypt and brought us to the World Cup in 1990, and under the 18-year-old team led by Abul Cubs in the Al-Ahly Club, Captain Mustafa Hussein, an unbeatable team and thousands of people attended its matches while they were under the age of young young men.
The team had a group of talents and abilities that rarely gathered in one team, after which many of them made the glory of Al-Ahly in the seventies. The eyes of Al-Ahly’s seniors were watching us, Captain Abdo Saleh Al-Wahsh, Captain Saleh Selim and Al-Sherbiny were coming down to us in the dressing room and traveling behind us in the important matches.. They chose me and voted for the first team when we were only seventeen. This team was traveling camps in Hungary before the start of the season, and plays in the stadiums of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon in the summer. I remember that the one who included me for the cubs was Mahmoud El-Gohary during a match between the Orman School and Saidia. Sports was our life in the school and the club.. The team included Samir Hassan Al-Taradah, who made his way from back to front nonstop until he scored, and Yahya Bahjat the rock that prevents passage to our goal with his heroism and talent. With us was Fathi Mabrouk, the North Buck, who also became a famous coach and accepted her as a prominent player. Badr Tawfik was an artist in the line of defense. I remember Syed El-Sobky, the leader of the center line, and Mustafa Abdo, our unstoppable flying wing. Abdulaziz Abdel Shafi, who was younger, but shared with us for his unique talent, and became a player unparalleled in abilities and cunning, and technical director of Al-Ahly. Mohsen Salem the jet with his unusual speed, and I was the team’s number 10, scoring right and left, and a defender could not prevent my headers from scoring goals.
We finished the season scoring more than 140 goals, we all played, scored and had fun
We travel with love and affection. Three of us got into medical school and Yehia became the first team doctor after that.
But we were all one thing, and Safwat Abdel Halim was another. A craft enjoyed by his colleagues and opponents. Unprecedented abilities in dancing, passing and recording, with grace and ease, sometimes made us laugh while we were on the field around him. Safwat was an extraordinary phenomenon and a super talent, but he did not have the social personality outside the stadium that qualifies him for the positions that his colleagues took after that. As soon as he retired, he remained a coach for the Cubs, but he did not receive the appropriate honor for his talent in the club or the national team.
May God have mercy on the letters of those we played with and the funniest of those we saw on the pitches.
Long live Al-Ahly Club and I remember it and its fans that we must adhere to the values we learned in this pioneering institution over the years by keeping promises, being creative on the field and in the stands, and enjoying what we achieve from playing that delights the fans, not by imposing our will with insults and pushes, but by winning and sportsmanship.
Safwat was an example of all that and was the best representative of the ancient club.
