Essam El-Hadary

Football player infobox
playername = Essam El-Hadary


fullname = Essam Kamal Tawfik El-Hadary
height = height|meters=1.83
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1973|01|15
cityofbirth = Damietta
countryofbirth = Egypt
currentclub = FC Sion
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears = 1991-1993
youthclubs = Damietta Club
years = 1993-1996
1996–2008
2008-Present
clubs = Damietta Club Al-Ahly FC Sion
caps(goals) = ?(0)
510 (1)
6 (0)
nationalyears = 1997–Present
nationalteam = Egypt
nationalcaps(goals) = 102 (0)
pcupdate = 24 July 2008
ntupdate = 26 March 2008

Essam El-Hadary ( _ar. عصام الدين كمال توفيق الحضري) (born January 15, 1973) is an Egyptian goalkeeper, playing for Swiss side FC Sion. He is known as "The High Dam" or "The Beast of Africa".

Biography

Considered one of the best goalkeepers ever to emerge from Africa, El-Hadary represented Egypt 102 times, winning the African Cup of Nations three times with his country. Latest two times, he has been chosen as the best goalkeeper in the 2006 African Cup of Nations, held in homeland Egypt and in the 2008 African Cup of Nations, held in Ghana. He started playing professionally for Egyptian club Damietta before transferring to the Egyptian giants Al-Ahly in 1996. During his stint at Al-Ahly, El-Hadary achieved some impressive feats in over 500 appearances for the club in which he scored 1 goal. Nationally, he won the Egyptian League 7 times, the Egyptian Cup 4 times and the Egyptian Super Cup 4 times. Outside Egypt, El-Hadary was very successful with Al-Ahly. He won the African Champions League and the African Super Cup 3 times. He was also in a very strong Al-Ahly team that went unbeaten for 50 matches, which was ended in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship, where they disappointly lost their two group staged matches. He returned in the 2006 FIFA Club World Championship, where Al-Ahly finished 3rd. El-Hadary has been chosen in the CAF Awards for the 2006 and 2008 African teams. On May 15, 2008, he was chosen in the Egypt squad with Amir Abdelhamid for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Move to FC Sion

El-Hadary 's move to FC Sion could cause some problems, after Al-Ahly told BBC Sport that there is no way that the Egyptian powerhouse sold El-Hadary to Sion. 'There is no way the club has agreed to sell the player, because we have only three goalkeepers registered. To my knowledge there's nothing in his contract that allows him to terminate it unilaterally.', as is claimed by Al Ahly board member Khaled Mortagy. FC Sion claims that they bought El-Hadary, using the Webster-arrest, meaning that a player can buy out his contract and leave without permission after a minimum period of 3 years with a club, which is the case with El-Hadary. Sion has offered Al Ahly US$400,000 for the player, equivalent to the remaining two years of his contract. If the deal is persuaded, El-Hadary would be the first player to make use of the Webster-arrest since Andy Webster himself. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/7259018.stm Ahly fume over El-Hadary move] ]

Friday February 29 , 2008 : El Hadary is back to Cairo , Egypt apologized on more than 3 tv channels to El Ahly club and all its 65 million fans and announced that he will not go back to FC Sion and that he is under any decision that may be taken by El Ahly club administration and that he will continue his contract with El Ahly and any club that seeks to buy him should go and agree with El Ahly first.

Friday, March 7th 2008. Al Ahly's Board has passed a decision about EL Hadary's Punishment. It is said that he will be banned for the next 3 weeks (21 Days) with a fine of 250 thousand Egyptian pounds. They have also filled the incident to FIFA after they were asked for reasons behine not sending his international card.

But now, El Hadary has apologized to the fans of El Ahly and all of Egypt and has come back on February 29, 2008 [ [http://www.el-ahly.com/Sitemanager/templates/news.aspx?articleid=7882 El Hadary apologized for what he done (Arabic)] ] .After apologizing, he returned to the Swiss team.

References

1 [http://www.eurosport.com/football/fifa-world-club-cup/2006/sport_sto1008721.shtml EuroSport.com: El-Hadary wants World redemption]

2 [http://www.eurosport.com/football/sport_sto830592.shtml Eurosport.com: Hadary the hero as Egypt win African title]

3 [http://www.eurosport.com/football/tp_sto840535.shtml EuroSport.com: Hadary the hero... again]

4 [http://www.fifa.com/en/WorldLeagues/index/0,4643,132082,00.html?articleid=132082 FIFA.com: Al Ahly win record-equaling Super Cup title]

5 [http://www.cafonline.com/news.php?id=1104 CAFonline.com:Winners of Glo-CAF Awards 2006]