The tradition of Egypt's footballers getting weird nicknames is alive and well. This is a tradition that dates back to the 80s. The brilliant and sometimes satirical player nicknames were prominently used by Badr Ragab, a youth coach at Egypt's most successful club Al-Ahly during the 80s.
"When I was coaching the youth team at Al-Ahly, I decided to give nicknames to my players for several reasons. I dreamed that they will become international stars and I wanted to motivate them to work hard imitating famous footballers", said Ragab. “Names are based on their resemblance to famous players as well as their skills. I gave Kareem Waleed the nickname 'Nedved' because he resembled Juventus' Pavel Nedved, and I gave Mahmoud Hassan the nickname 'Trezeguet'. He had the elements of David Trezeguet".
The Egyptian Trezeguet, 26 years old, is with the English team Aston Villa after playing in Belgium with Anderlecht and in Turkey with Kasimpaşa. He has 48 appearances with the Egyptian national team.
Ragab nicknamed Egypt winger Mahmoud Abdel-Moniem "Kahraba" (Electricity) because of his energy.
However, not everyone is happy with their nicknames, even though Egyptian fans have embraced them wholeheartedly. Ramy Barakat, former psychologist of the Representative of Egypt, claims that nicknames are not useful in the long run.
"Some players find these nicknames silly and are just hard workers who want to be stars, while others fall prey to them and believe they've made it. I prefer not to give younger players such nicknames", he emphasized.
But that hasn't stopped players from putting their weird and interesting nicknames on their jerseys as well. Zamalek star Youssef Ibrahim, 25, was given the nickname 'Obama' by his teammates when he was promoted to the first team. They said he looked like former US President Barack Obama.
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Al-Ahly defender Ahmed Ramadan goes by the nickname "Beckham", as a tribute to English star David Beckham. Khalil Heggi, also at Al-Ahly, has decided to take the name of Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar.
One of the most beloved Egyptian players Mahmoud Abdel-Razeq, who played for Zamalek and Al-Ahly, is simply known as "Shikabala". It is an Egyptian version of the name of Zambian star Webster Chikabala, who played professionally in Portugal. Zamalek defender Mahmoud Hamdy is known as "El Winch" (the crane) because of his strength.
As in much of Egyptian public life, the military is also represented. The club El-Entag El-Harby (Military Production) has a player nicknamed "Bazooka" (bazooka). Egyptian footballers also represent dairy products. Abdel Rahman Khaled of Al Mokawloon Al Arab SC, is known by "Gebna", which means cheese. Perhaps the strangest label belongs to Al-Ahly star Mohamed Magdy. His nickname "Afsha" is Egyptian slang for catching chickens before they are slaughtered. His mother was the one who first called him that, because Magdy as a child was particularly talented at catching chickens to sell in the small village.
