CAIRO - Many people expected that the recent revolution would have an impact on the sports sector in the country, especially the prices of Egyptian soccer players. And, even if there is a fixed minimum wage in Egypt, football players still earn huge salaries and command very large transfer fees. There is no real standard that determines the value of players in the Egyptian League, as the recent deals made by local clubs show. The Egyptian summer transfer window for players is witnessing a fierce battle between arch-rivals Al-Ahly and Zamalek. The two top clubs fought for the services of Mohamed Naguib and Walid Soliman, with Al-Ahly succeeding in hiring them both. In recent days, the Red Devils have spent a staggering LE30 million on just five players. They are Soliman from Enppi, hired in a four-season deal for LE8.5 million besides what his club will have; Naguib, transferred from Police Union for LE5.4 million, besides what his club will have; Brazil's Junior, picked up for LE5.3 million from Naval Club of Portugal; Sayyed Hamdi, purchased from Petrojet for LE 5.5 million; and Ahmed Shedid Qenawi, bought from Al-Masry with LE1.5 million going to his club alone. Despite this, the Cairo-based club is hoping to land at least two players from other clubs in the coming days. They are particularly interested in Ahmed Ali and Abdel-Said from Ismaili. They have also opened direct contacts to sign Bassem Ali and Mohamed Salah from Arab Contractors and Ahmed Hamoudi from Semouha club. Al-Ahly's Portuguese coach, Manuel Jose, has urged the club board to swiftly clinch the deals he has asked for as soon as possible, after the team lost to Esperance of Tunisia in the second round of the African Champions League (ACL), before they were held to a 3-3 drew against at home by Morocco's Wydad Casablanca. Striker Emad Met'eb scored twice as Al-Ahly of Egypt defeated Mouloudia Alger of Algeria 2-0 in Cairo last Friday to get their African Champions League (ACL) campaign back on track. Met'eb struck after 10 and 31 minutes at the Cairo Stadium as the Red Devils won for the first time in Group B after a home draw with Wydad Casablanca of Morocco and an away loss to Esperance of Tunisia. Meanwhile, Zamalek club have succeeded in snapping up 20-year-old Ghanaian Karimu Alhassan on a free transfer from Ghana Hearts of Oak club. Alhassan penned last Saturday a five-year deal with Zamalek in the team's fourth summer deal. Last week, the White Knights also re-signed defender Hani Said on loan from MCDR club less than one month after he left the club. He and MCDR striker Hussein Hamdi have signed for the club in a deal involving the transfer of Zamalek's Ashour el-Adham to MCDR. Egyptian international Said left Zamalek last month after his contract expired, only for new manager Hassan Shehata to request re-signing him. In addition to el-Adham, MCDR will have LE5 million for the services of new recruit Said and striker Hamdi. Earlier last month, Zamalek signed Al-Ahly ex-player Ahmed Hassan on a free transfer. According to sources in Zamalek, Hassan will receive LE8 million over two years. Just like Al-Ahly, Zamalek are still trying to finalise the transfer of at least three more players from other clubs in the coming days, including Ahmed Ali and Abdel-Said from Ismaili. Also like the Red Devils, the White Knights are chasing Ahmed Hamoudi from Semouha club. "Unfortunately there are no restrictions in Egypt that govern the prices of players, unlike in Europe," says soccer expert Taha Ismail, adding that there must be rules that control the prices of the players as in Europe, for example, the number of international games a star has played and the number of goals he has scored, especially if he is a striker. "This doesn't happen in Egypt, as everything is controlled by the players' agents. They control the market and know well how to market their player by contracting more than two clubs at the same time," Ismail explains. Farouq Gaafar, a former Zamalek player and coach of el-Geish club agrees, adding that none of Egypt's players deserves the money he gets. "There are no proper rules and bases in Egypt for determining the real value and price of any player in the Egyptian Premier League," he says, stressing that there is no player in Egypt that deserves the money he gets except Zamalek's Shikaballa. "Big club such as Al-Ahly and Zamalek in Egypt are mainly responsible for the increasing prices of players, as they compete with each other to sign them, even if they don't necessarily need them.” Hassan el-Shazli, who used to play for the national team, says that there are no rules that govern the prices of players in the country. "Professionalism, unfortunately, does not apply to football, except in the players' demands for money,” he adds. El-Shazli explains that the rising prices of players has led to the bankruptcy of many popular clubs; the only clubs that can survive these skyrocketing prices are the company clubs. Weak youth sectors Although all the Egyptian League clubs have youth sectors, they challenge each other every year to sign up-and-coming players from other clubs for a lot of money. Are the youth sectors in the clubs unable to provide players for their own teams? Or are the technical coaching staff at the clubs never looking at their own talent and always looking for the ‘readymade' players? Amr Abul Magd, the ex-director of the Arab Contractors Club's youth sector, says that most of the Arab Contractors players last season emerged from the youth sectors of the club, such as Bassem Ali, Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Salah and Mohamed el-Nini. "All of these players are now either wanted by other big clubs or they are playing for the national youth teams," Abul Magd points out, proudly adding that the club will not need to buy any players from outside the club. Mahmoud Saad, the manager of Zamalek's youth sector, adds that, despite the club's limited financial abilities, their youth sector has succeeded in grooming nearly 20 players, including Hazem Imam, Ahmed Ghanem, Omar Gaber and Mohamed Ibrahim. "I think the youth sector in Zamelek has played a big role in supporting the first team in the past two years. Unfortunately, we always seem to struggle for goalkeepers every year; a big team like ours needs experienced stopper," Saad says. Abdel-Aziz Abdel-Shafei, the manager of Al-Ahly's youth sector, stresses that it's important for the youth sector of any club to be the main source for the first team, who must rely on it for 60 per cent of its players, while the other 40 per cent should come from the cream of the players with other clubs. As you can see, football has changed little since the January 25 revolution. At least, it hasn't changed yet.
