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What happened that led to Ahmed Fathy leaving Al-Ahly and moving to Pyramids? How were you asked to resign as captain of the Egyptian team? Zamalek negotiated before?
All this was answered by the Joker, former Al-Ahly player and current Pyramids player, in his interview with “MBC Egypt”.
All of the following is on the lips of Ahmed Fathy.
How do you feel after leaving Al-Ahly
Al-Ahly is the club I have played for the most in my career and I am proud to do well, I will miss the Mukhtar Altech stadium, of course, and I will always visit it.
Of course, I felt annoyed to be sitting in his place. I would not lie. I want to play continuously. The ball is my life. My mother used to tell me that if you don’t play, you will die. There will come a time and I will retire when I feel like I can’t play.
My decision to leave was difficult, but what makes me happy is that I did not lose the league once to Al-Ahly, even when Zamalek won it, I was playing in Qatar at the time.
The reason for leaving Al-Ahly
I got an offer from Pyramids before the Super Meeting at the start of the season, before meeting Zamalek for £ 25 million. Sayed Abdel Hafeez sat with me and asked: Will you go? I told him that I would pray with Istikhara first, I went back to him and told him that I would not go and that we had the important Super Cup against Zamalek and I decided to continue, and Abdel Hafeez promised to meet me in January to renew the contract.
But we spoke in March and Abdel Hafeez promised to meet me after I faced Sundowns and we met in April.
During the negotiations we did not reach an agreement and we decided to leave after studying all the offers that they made me.
If it were to stay, I would have stayed, but I was destined to leave, I got a lot of offers and I stayed in Al-Ahly. Mahmoud Al-Khatib, president of the club, on one occasion after renewing my contract I received an offer from Queens Park Rangers and they gave me the choice if I wanted to leave, but I stayed, everything is appreciated.
It did not happen that Al-Ahly asked me to stay at the request of coach Pitso Musimae, and I say that the club was treating me very well after the decision to leave me at the end of my contract.
I love the club very much, but everything is appreciated, I will always say it, and until my last time at the club I gave everything I had for it.
My last conversation with Mahmoud Al-Khatib was the moment he received the league crest and told me to be with a believer in the stadium, our conversations were normal. I love Al-Khatib very much, and many members of the administration spoke to me and wished me success and thanked me for my time with Al-Ahly.
It was possible that I would end my career in Al-Ahly, but this is what happened. It was possible that I would go ahead and ask the public after a year of my departure. I was sad in the past, as the crowd asked Hazem Imam to leave, and I was young at the time.
So those situations are always in my imagination, the game and the public loves me and remembers many good things for me, the endings are always remembered by everyone.
On Zamalek’s negotiations and his goal against Al-Masry in the Egyptian Cup final
I apologized to the club leaders for joining them after the negotiations and an amount like the one that was offered to Abdullah Al-Saeed, it was difficult because I play for Al-Ahly and I love him and I love his fans. I didn’t think about it, and I never negotiated with Al-Ahly about it.
As for the cup final, Akram Tawfiq expected him to score a goal. I wanted the tournament, especially since we hadn’t won it 10 years ago, and I used to head back to Sherif Ikrami to get him to play fast, but I went to the corner kick and Hussam Al-Badri gave me a hand.
After the ball scattered, I ran fast and we hit a serve. Saleh Juma played it badly, and all my concern was not to bounce off us with a fast break, so the ball went to Amr Gamal and he passed it to me.
I didn’t want to pay and was afraid of wasting it, and I thought about passing Abdullah Al-Saeed, but he was watching from the Egyptian players at the time, I decided to pay and scored the goal to win the cup.
The fact of his request to resign as captain of the Egyptian team
A member of the coaching staff of the Egyptian team offered me to resign as captain of the Egyptian team and I refused. What I do know is that Ahmed Hegazy and Mohamed El-Niny also refused to give it up.
It is not correct that I am with the national team and they remove my badge. I asked them if Muhammad Abu Trika was my place, could they talk to him? The answer was No. I told them why they put me in trouble and said that I am the cause of the crisis.
Some time ago I felt excluded from the selection and I told Mohamed Magdy “Afsha”, talking to me was giving the badge to Mohamed Salah.
I hope to continue on the field, achievements and play in the 2022 World Cup.
End of africa
I was sure that Al-Ahly qualified for the African Champions League final, and Tariq Hamed asked me while we were with the Egyptian team before the Comoros meeting, what about Zamalek? I told him I don’t know, but I am confident that Al-Ahly will reach the final and crown the title, and he told me that Tariq, rather Zamalek will be crowned with him.
The game is very difficult, I never said it was an easy game, since my first summit meeting I used to find everyone on top of nervousness and concentration, it is a very difficult game.
Al-Ahly will be crowned with the title and I will be in the stadium to attend the game.
The best and worst moment of his career
The most difficult moment of my career? By mistake, he scored for the Egyptian team in the World Cup against Russia. If time came back, I would not have lamented like that. I would have expected to go to the round of 16, especially since we were better in the game.
My best goal for Al-Ahly was against Al-Jaysh in 2009, which led to us playing a playoff game and winning the league.