Egypt winger Mohamed Abdullah explains how he converted from a fringe player in the Egyptian league into a key member of Turkish side Konyaspor, in an exclusive interview with FilGoal.com. Abdullah answers FilGoal.com users' questions openly, talking about his career ups and downs and giving his personal thoughts about football in Egypt. What's the secret behind your significant improvement after leaving Ahli for Konyaspor, and what's your role at Konya? The main difference is that with Ahli I did not have regular football so my performances weren't consistent, I also played at the right-back position, but with Konya I am an attacking midfielder, which is a much free role. Did you have any problems with your previous managers in Egypt Manuel Jose (Ahli) and Theo Bucker (Ismaili)? Nothing really, at Ahli, the only thing that blurred my relationship with Jose was that I felt that I needed more chances to play regularly, but I was disciplined and obedient to the technical staff. I also had no troubles with Bucker, it was all rumors, I even enjoyed my best seasons with him at Ismaili, and he approached me when he joined Zamalek, but I preferred the Ahli move at that time. Why did you leave Ismaili while having a good spell there, and do you regret moving to Ahli? I was brought up at Ismaili and I owe this club a lot, but I thought that it was time to move. I needed to go further with my ambitions, and I have no regrets at all for joining Ahli. If you had to choose between Ahli and a move abroad, what would you prefer? I always prefer the best option, so I would consider my options and then take a decision, but anyways I think that playing in Turkey is a better option than being in the Egyptian league, because Turkish football made huge steps forward and at the moment I have no intentions in returning to Egypt. Do you have further ambitions than the Turkish league?
The versatile winger idolizes Ibrahim Hassan Of course I would like to play at higher levels, I deem a lot of admiration for the Spanish league, but I think that Konya is a very important step in my career. How is life at Konya and how is your relationship with your manager? Konya is a very interesting city, people are very kind and religious, as for my manager, he is a very respectful man, he helped me regain my confidence when I arrived at the club. How is your relationship with Turkish-based Egyptians? Terrific, my Konya teammate Abdul-Zaher Al-Saqqa is a wonderful person, he always supported me and he helped me cope with life in Turkey, I am also in touch with all Egyptian players in Turkey. You used to play in the right-back position in Egypt, do you think we are facing a setback in that role? The only problem in this position is that the player needs to play consistently, and there are some good players in this position such as Islam Al-Shater, Mohamed Barakat, Ahmed Adel, Ahmed Ghanem, Ahmed Samir and Ahmed Sedik. But I think we will never have a right-back like Ibrahim Hassan. Did you expect your recent call-up to the Egyptian national team? I was not surprised because I worked hard with Konya to prove my worth for the national team. Do you think Egypt can make the African Nations Cup finals? Absolutely, I have no doubts that we will go through, we are in a group containing Mauritania, Botswana and Burundi, and with no disrespect to the others teams, we are the continent's champions. The Mauritania game was just a stumble. But Egypt failed to beat Botswana as well and the team's performance is not the same as in the 2006 Nations Cup triumph? It is normal losing our pace after such a big achievement, but we will regain our strength soon, as for the Botswana game, I don't know what happened because I was not selec
