Mohamed Aboutrika

• Egypt

Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Aboutrika (Arabic: محمد محمد محمد أبو تريكة‎; born 7 November 1978) is an Egyptian retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and a forward. He is often considered the best Egyptian player in history and is widely regarded as one of the greatest African footballers of all time. He also came second in the African Footballer of the Year award in 2008 after Emmanuel Adebayor, and was one of five nominees for the 2006 award, and one of the ten nominated for the 2013 award. Aboutrika won the African Cup of Nations in 2006 with the Egyptian national team. He also scored the winning goal to help Egypt win the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. He helped his club Al Ahly to win the bronze medal in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2006.[2]. In the first half of Egyptian league 2003–2004, Aboutrika scored 3 goals for Tersana. In January 2004, he was offered a position in Egypt's and Africa's top football team, Al Ahly. He scored 11 goals in his first and only 13 appearances with Al Ahly in 2003–2004 league, coming in the second place between top scorers in the Egyptian League with 14 goals. Aboutrika's efforts with Ahly led to attention from the Egyptian national team, and he started the game against Trinidad and Tobago in a friendly match before the World Cup 2006 qualifiers on 31 March 2004 in Arab Contractors Stadium. The first starting game for Aboutrika ended 2–1 for the Egyptians. He started as an attacker, but was found to play better when he played his normal position behind the attackers in the midfield position. Aboutrika scored his first national goal in this game. He scored 5 goals in his first 6 appearances with Egypt in 2004 and 2005.