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Kevin Cruickshank, the former Stoke City scouting manager, revealed the contract scenes with Ramadan Sobhi, the current Pyramids player.
Ramadan moved to Stoke City from Al-Ahly in 2016, before moving to Huddersfield Town in 2018.
Cruickshank recalled the details of the deal and his follow-up to Ramadan Sobhi in a lengthy report on StokeonTrentLive.
“Our focus at that time was mainly to bring players from Europe. I went to Argentina a few times, but Africa was never an option, due to work permits, logistical hurdles and everything,” Cruickshank said.
“But I saw a video of Ramadan standing on the ball, did some research, saw it at Wyscout (an Italian player discovery company) and had my colleagues Lee Mayberry and Tom Sutton take a look at it. We all saw its potential, and Mark Cartwright (Stock Technical Director) supported us to continue. ” .
He continued: “We realized that he would not be on the list of many clubs. Stoke, Newcastle and West Ham had always fought for the same players, if we were interested in a specific player, naturally it would also be under their eyes and by Therefore, it is difficult to be at the forefront of the negotiations. As for the Ramadan agreement, we were looking forward to it. ” It’s ready to go and we have a chance to figure it out. “
He added: “However, it was not an easy deal.”
He continued: “We were able to communicate with him through Hector Cuper, who was the technical director of the Egyptian team and owned the same agent as Sergio Molina (the young Stoke player at the time).”
He continued: “I traveled to Egypt and the situation was incredible. Attending the masses was forbidden in matches, as is the case now, and that’s why I had to attend the match as a member of the national team. There were 3 coaches and I led the drive for 3 and a half hours to Alexandria to see Al-Ahly play in a stadium. ” An empty capacity for 87 thousand spectators (ie Burj Al Arab) “.
He explained: “The second time I saw Ramadan, a team worker brought me and we had to cross 3 security lines, and we succeeded. Everyone present that day stopped me and tried to talk to me, I told them that I am a friend of Martin. Yeol, who was Al-Ahly’s coach at the time, because we wanted to keep it a secret. ” “.
He added: “I agreed to meet Ramadan and his agent at a hotel, and when I went for breakfast I found soccer players everywhere, about 50, it turned out that another Egyptian soccer team was staying at the hotel.”
He admitted: “There was a state of panic, especially on my part, that day Ramadan did not speak any English. I spoke with his agent and him about Stoke, the project and our plan, and he looked me in the eye and focused on everything. “.
He highlighted: “It was clear that it was a big problem. His ads were everywhere. I think he was an advertising contractor with 3 different parties, and people were around him to take pictures and get his signature.”
He touched on the marketing side of Ramadan Sobhi: “At first our interest was on the football side, and then when we investigated further, we discovered that he has a million more followers than Gerdan Shaqiri on Instagram, and that he had interviewed the Egyptian version of Oprah Winfrey, and she was the second youngest international player. ” Egyptian at all. “
He added: “Al-Ahly realized the value of the player who owns it and in our opinion we may not fully appreciate what we pay, but we know there are additional fees in the English Premier League, which is the price that the rest of the clubs want from the clubs in England. “
He praised the player’s adaptation to English football: “He was very skilled, and also strong. He was 18 years old and faced strong defenders. I knew he would be fine for the physical side in the English Premier League, it’s a completely different level, but it was an 18-year-old man, not a child. The English Premier League was very high, but he managed to manage it with his own abilities. “
“He played a lot of games faster than expected. We thought it would take him 6 to 12 months to align with the new language and the new culture. Unfortunately, we faced a difficult period at the time and this made things difficult for him,” he said.
He continued: “He went to another club to fight relegation, Huddersfield, and you can ask how things would have been different if he were to play and periodically register in Belgium or the Netherlands.”
He concluded: “I really hope he returns to England again. I remember seeing Ahmed Hegazy in Ismaily, he moved to Fiorentina at the age of nineteen and it was very early, then he came back to Egypt again, and he ended up later in West Bromwich Albion, I hope The same thing happens with Ramadan. “
Ramadan Sobhi played 46 games for Stoke City, during which he scored 3 goals and scored the same.
