Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Aboutrika (; born 7 November 1978) and known as Mohamed Aboutrika is an Egyptian retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and a forward. He was voted first place in the African Footballer of the Year award in 2008, and was one of five nominees for the 2006 award, and one of the ten nominated for the 2013 award. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest African and Arab players of all time.
Aboutrika won the Africa 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.
Off the pitch, he has been noted for both various humanitarian efforts as well as his philanthropy in Egypt.
Club career 2004: Debut season with Al Ahly In the first half of Egyptian league 2003–2004, Aboutrika scored 3 goals for Tersana. In January 2004, he was offered a position in Al Ahly. He scored 11 goals in his first 13 appearances with Al Ahly in the 2003–2004 season (all in the league), becoming the second-highest scorer in the Egyptian League with 14 goals.
Aboutrika's efforts with Ahly drew attention from the Egyptian national team, he started his first 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 attacking midfield position. Aboutrika scored his first national goal in this game. He scored 5 goals in his first 6 appearances with Egypt between 2004 and 2005.
2005 season In 2005, Al Ahly regained the Egyptian League Championship after four years out of the top position, Aboutrika finished 3rd in the goalscoring rankings in the Egyptian League, while also helping his teammate Emad Moteab finish as the competition's top scorer. Also in 2005, Aboutrika played a great role in Al Ahly victory of the 2005 CAF Champions League, he scored a goal in the final from 30 yards out against Étoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia in a game that ended 3–0 for Al Ahly.
Al Ahly qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship but finished last, Aboutrika told FIFA.com the reason, saying: "Our problem was that we lost our form, for some reason we could not play like we had before arriving in Japan".
2006 He proved to be his international team's trump card en route to victory in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in February, when he scored two important goals against Libya and Ivory Coast. He was the winning goal assistant, in the semi-final match against Senegal when Amr Zaki scored in the 80th minute. He was very dominant in that game, but his accurate shot hit the bar. In the final match, Aboutrika scored the decisive penalty in the shoot-out which gave Egypt the title.
Aboutrika led Al Ahly to the 2006 CAF Champions League title for the second successive time in November 2006. He was the top scorer of the competition with 8 goals, and scored the winning goal in the final against CS Sfaxien in the 91st minute.
He also participated with Al Ahly in winning the CAF Super Cup against FAR Rabat of Morocco, days after the Africa Cup of Nations in February.
Locally, he got the Egyptian Premier League in June when he was the top scorer by 18 goals, and won Egypt Cup, then the Egyptian Super Cup in July when he scored the winning goal against ENPPI in the 92nd minute despite having suffered an injury in the first half.
Japanese newspapers nominated Aboutrika to be one of the best players in 2006 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, the last tournament in Aboutrika's year. Al Ahly was one of the African representatives, and the first team ever to be qualified two successive times to this championship, and the first African team to win a medal in that competition.
In the opening match of the tournament against Auckland City FC of New Zealand on 10 December 2006, Aboutrika helped Al Ahly to secure and book a semi-final date with Internacional of Brazil. Al Ahly won 2–0, and Aboutrika scored the second goal.
In the semi-finals, Al Ahly faced Brazilian Internacional on 13 December 2006, and Aboutrika played a good game, but his accurate shot hit the Brazilian right-hand post to deprive his team from a draw. Al Ahly lost the match 2–1, but proved a good efficiency, yet the ball refused to be netted in many available chances to score in Brazilian goalkeeper.'Match Report'
Al Ahly faced Club América of Mexico, for the third place, and Aboutrika gave Al Ahly the lead with an amazing free-kick over the wall, ending the first half 1–0 for Al Ahly. In the second half, America scored an equalizer, Aboutrika appeared in the 79th minute with a skilled ball, he showed yet again why he is on the shortlist for the African player of the year. After surging out of midfield and finding Flavio Amado with a pinpoint pass, the mercurial playmaker latched on to the Angolan's return ball and calmly slotted the ball past the Mexican goalkeeper for his third goal of the tournament. Al Ahly won the third place, after Aboutrika lifted his team to an unprecedented result for the Egyptian club or any African outfit. He finished as the tournament's top scorer with 3 goals in 3 matches.
Aboutrika won all but one of the competitions he participated in that year for club and country, and got the bronze medal for Al Ahly in 2006 FIFA Club World Cup. He was the top scorer in three competitions, which are 2006 FIFA Club World Cup with 3 goals, Egyptian Premier League with 18 goals and 2006 CAF Champions League with 8 goals. Aboutrika scored in other competitions, and made brilliant assistants to strikers.
African Footballer of the Year 2006 Nomination To the FIFA.com expression, He was nominated to win the 2006 CAF African Footballer of the Year award along with Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and FC Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o. The other nominees for the honour were Chelsea and Ghana international midfielder Michael Essien, and Nigeria and Portsmouth striker Nwankwo Kanu, who previously won the award twice. Aboutrika said in November 2006: "I would love to be nominated for the CAF Best Player award. That would make 2006 a very special year!".
Aboutrika was the only African-based player between the nominees, but he was also the only one who made an achievement for his national team that year by winning 2006 Africa Cup of Nations. Aboutrika's brace in the 2006 FIFA Club World Cup and his dazzling performances throughout the season made him a serious contender for the CAF African Footballer of the Year award (as well as the BBC award) and secured his place as Egypt's most popular personality. He did not win the award but achieved second place and later was given "best interclub player" and "best player in the CAF Champions League."
"Aboutrika has won the highest prize any person can achieve, that is the love of the people," sports columnist Hassan Mistikawi wrote in the state-owned Al-Ahram daily newspaper.
Former Al Ahly coach Manuel José de Jesus described Aboutrika as "the best football player in Africa", commenting that Aboutrika did not show more of his repertoire of skills while at the Club World Cup. He said: "Aboutrika didn't introduce all what he has in FIFA Club World Cup 2006, but he got the top scorer title and helped leading his team to the third place". José also mentioned Aboutrika as one of the best players he ever trained. He reinforced this statement, saying: "Aboutrika is priceless for us. I can't imagine my team without him".
2007 In 2007, Al Ahly won the Egyptian Premier League (2006–2007) for the third successive season. Aboutrika scored 7 goals for his team, although he was injured. Al Ahly won the Egypt Cup 2007 for the second successive time. Aboutrika was the top goalscorer of the competition with 4 goals. He scored a double kick memorable goal against Tala'ea El-Gaish SC in the 8-round game which ended 3–1 for Al Ahly. In the final, Al Ahly faced his rival Zamalek SC. Aboutrika made a one neck-saving equalizer in the last 2 minutes on 2 July 2007 in the Egypt Cup resulting in extra-time after tying 2–2. After Zamalek grabbed their third in the first half of extra-time, Aboutrika dazzled the stands with two great balls, one an assisted cross over the whites' defense to Osama Hosny to score the equalizer in the second half of extra-time in the first seconds of the game and within a minute, he surged between the Zamalek's midfield and passed two Zamalek players before providing an accurate through pass to Ahmad Sedik on the wing who went through on goal and assisted again for Osama Hosny for the late winner and holding high the Egyptian Cup. After that, Al Ahly won the Egyptian Super Cup 2007 for the third successive time, through shoot-outs, after tying 1–1 with Ismaily.
In 2007 CAF Champions League, Aboutrika scored 4 goals for Al Ahly until now, to raise his African goals to the number 15. Al Ahly faced Étoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia in the final match. Al Ahly was having the chance to be the first team in the World to reach FIFA Club World Cup three successive times, and the first team in Africa to win CAF Champions League three successive times. However, the two legs ended, seeing Étoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia lifting the cup.
He won the title Best Player in Egypt for 2007 the fourth successive time after 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 setting a new Egyptian record.
2008 African Cup of Nations 2008 In 2008, Aboutrika scored 4 goals for Egypt in the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. He scored the winning goal against Cameroon in the final match, helping Egypt to win the African Cup of Nations for the second consecutive tournament. Aboutrika also scored a goal in the semi-final against the Ivory Coast, and scored twice against Sudan in Egypt's group stage match.
Aboutrika scored a goal in the final match. In the previous tournament in 2006, he scored the latest decisive penalty shoot-out in the final match against the Ivory Coast to give Egypt the cup. With his team Al Ahly of Egypt, Aboutrika was the hero of final matches again, through scoring a goal in the final match of both the 2006 and the 2005 CAF Champions League helping his team lift the continental cup.
CAF Champions League 2008 Aboutrika rehealed from injury in August, after missing the group stage start of 2008 CAF Champions League with his team Al Ahly. He marked his first participation in the group stage, scoring the winning goal for Al Ahly in the 93rd minute against Dynamos F.C. of Zimbabwe in an 8-round game that ended 2–1 for the Egyptian side. On 30 August, he helped Al Ahly to grab the 3 points from Zimbabwe, after making the winning goal, scored by his favourite teammate Mohamed Barakat; Al Ahly achieved a 1–0 win. On 14 September, Aboutrika scored the second goal for Al Ahly against their rivals, Zamalek SC of Egypt, in a group game that ended 2–2.
Aboutrika scored again in the final group match against ASEC Mimosas, a game ended 2–2 as Aboutrika netted the first goal for Al Ahly. A draw sealed first place in Group A for Al Ahly with 12 points from six matches, while Dynamos of Zimbabwe joined them in the semi-finals of the 3.5-million-dollar competition.
Aboutrika was crowned the 2008 BBC African Footballer of the Year. He won after taking more than half of the total ballot.
2008 African Footballer of the Year nomination Mohamed Aboutrika (Al Ahly, Egypt), Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Togo), Amr Zaki (Wigan Athletic, Egypt), Didier Drogba (Chelsea F.C., Ivory Coast) and Michael Essien (Chelsea F.C., Ghana) make up the shortlist for the Glo-CAF African Footballer of the Year across the world.