Letter of transmittal
Mackay, Queensland.
The CEO
Crystal Fast Foods Outlet
Melbourne
Australia
Dear Sir,
The following report highlights the reasons why most of the talented Egyptians soccer players fail to pursue a soccer career abroad despite being physically fit and skillful. A few past players who have had a chance to play in the Europe soccer league have been too controversial, to say the least, most of them have been too unprofessional and have shown no commitment to play by the rules.
The report will be critical in helping individuals understand the need to utilize opportunities, which most footballers are entitled to. These opportunities include taking studies, when they get the chance to visit to the countries in which they do the training.
The Manager
Introduction
This article seeks to highlight the reasons why most of the talented Egyptians soccer players fail to pursue a soccer career abroad despite being physically fit and skillful. A few past players who have had a chance to play in the Europe soccer league have been too controversial, to say the least, most of them have been too unprofessional and have shown no commitment to play by the rules. Occasionally, an athlete can secure a scholarship abroad, while playing for a club. Most African players have benefited a great deal from that by winning athletic scholarship in soccer, track events, basketball, and many activities, that are more sporting. Egyptian soccer players have not been available for taking up on any of these fronts for reasons best known to them. Soccer experience abroad is believed to improve a player’s quality of play and with a host of clubs available abroad, any African country stands a chance to develop. Apart from the money and good wages associated with European football, the most important thing is exposure to more competitive leagues. Most of these players have impressed in national leagues and watching them shine abroad leaves faces smiling. However, this has never been the case for most of the Egyptian soccer players, despite being the Champions of Africa. Most of them have either been too much to contain or too difficult to fit in and adapt to the games in these leagues.
The journey to becoming a professional player takes hard work, determination, talent, and good luck. In that regard, the competition among players who seek to win the same contract is always stiff. Therefore, in the case of the United States, young talent drawn from the academy gets a contract in a major league soccer and the USL. While at Soccer College, recruits trains daily just like professional players under professional instructors and with excellent facilities. When a university offers a degree level scholarship to the player, he will benefit from playing for a college soccer team after which he could be mature for a contract in a major league. Egypt as a country has shown the potential to produce talented players compared to any other team in Africa although most players concentrate in domestic leagues. The other concern is the fact that most of the Egyptian soccer players who have tried to play in Europe have performed below bar raising the question, why that is so.
Discussion of findings
In light of the uniqueness of Egypt players not featuring in the European league despite having the quality of top flight players this article will highlight the challenges that have come to play. Statistically, Egypt has the best team in Africa considering that they were able to dominate the African cup of nations consecutively in 2006, 2008, and 2010. That in itself is a proof of a strong team that can compete well in highly rated leagues like in Europe. A few of the Egypt’s best players with the likes of Mido, Hossam Ghaly, Amr Zaki and many others have tested waters in the premier league, but their trade would not last long enough for them to establish themselves among world best players. On a case-by-case basis; Mido joined the English premier league side Burnsley in June and left on January due to injuries and fitness challenges.
However, while in Tottenham, Marseile, and Belgium club, Mido made a name for himself having been honored with an ebony shoe being recognition for the best African player. What is also apparent with Mido is the fact that, while, in Europe, he could not last more than two seasons in the club, sometimes months, were the duration he had with other clubs. Perhaps, in depths look into Mido’s case reveals a scenario that could speak more a player who has issues with his ego. One incident picked while at Ajax Amsterdam; he paired very well with Ibrahimovic but out of the blues, he picked an argument and acted weirdly. His temper spanned out of control and from there he moved to French league one. A series of injuries was also the other unfortunate challenge standing in the way of Mido’s career, and this would in turn reduce his chances of securing a first team spot and that forced him to move over and again from one club to the other. The other reason given for Mido’s failure is the fact he was an anchor in the national team and for a fact, all the hopes were on him (Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru, 34).
The other case associated with Egyptian players is lack of professionalism where someone is not able to hold back his dissatisfaction and on the extreme, untenable ego which give the player false confidence when taking on the competition. For example, a player finding it an issue when substituted and exhibiting reactions of frustration without understanding that, no one player is autonomous in a team. Such acts of intolerance are disgusting to the whole team and the coach as well and for that reason, most of the Egyptian players end up cutting short their spell in the premier league. The other challenges though not considered in this case are the language barrier and climate change. The language spoken in Europe is different from what the Egyptians speak and for that matter before a player can be fluent, he will be having a hard time relating with the teammates in a cohesive manner.
When a new player from Egypt finds himself in the English league, and has no friend to walk along with, the struggle to communicate will lower the concentration of the player during training and in the game as well. Some of the players in the English premier league have expressed their disappointment with the weather conditions they have to put up with in England (Tough, 23). Whenever the season begins, it hardly gets warm and for players from semi-arid areas, like Egypt, will find it hard to adopt and subsequently to set up a good show of skill. They eventually bow out of the competition citing numerous inconsistencies to what they are used to in Egypt.
The nature of players in Egypt can be used to benchmark African football except for the small mistakes that turn away the crowd from being associated with an individual. The things that matter in a club are attached to the reputation of the club so that, if a player is badly behaved, the club will carry the shame, and no one is ready to do that. Sometimes, a club is fined for the misbehavior of a player, and that is what has been a challenge with having Egyptian soccer players.
Illustrations: Ahmed 'Mido' Hossam fact file
Clubs: 10 clubs in seven countries.
Controversial moments;
- Mido signed a major contract with Roma, and when he was called for international duty, he feigned an injury only to play for Roma within the next 24 hours. He was later dropped from the national team.
- In the 2006 African cup f nations, his reactions for being substituted did not auger well with the coach and for that reason, he was given a six-month match suspension.
- A registration error became another challenge when he returned to Zamalek for the hid season and was left warming the bench for 8 months
Retired: Final game of his career was as a substitute in Barnsley's 1-0 defeat by Huddersfield in November 2012.
Recommendations and/or conclusion
Language and communication
First, to address the issue of language and communication barriers; since the most used language in Europe is English, the football association of Egypt should ensure that their players are able to communicate in more than one language once they are enough to take on national team responsibilities. Basic information will help a player to fit in a team of players very easily without having to feel isolated at all. However, if there is a schedule that is laid down by the company owner to enable players, as well to participate in the general election perse, that will due to the fact that the Arabs are not leaving anything to chance. Some of the Egypt born players who changed their citizenships as Elsharawy is doing well in the Italian league, and this could be attributed to a flexible mind that is ready to pick a challenge and pursue it fully (Fang, Irving, 12).
It is now clear that he has learned a new language, and because he has a chance to change the league to England or even Spain, learning a new language will always be important for him. The level of experience a player will gain from these league competitions is very good for the national team especially if there are four players in the same league, and another four in a similar league. When assembling the national team, it will be very easy for the coach to decide to whom to build the game around. For example, in England, the wealth of midfielders like jack Wilshere makes it easy for a coach of both club and country to decide who else build the game around.
Fund local academies
There is also a need to source for funding for local soccer academies from where young talent will base thought crucial topic in life and for the case of records, all the players currently under contract will have young talent growing among them. Most of the top-flight clubs in Europe have their own solar academy, which gives them an upper hand in accessing high potential talent and recruiting it. In some of the African countries, these academies secure contracts for talented players who have shown the height of potential a club would seek to know before entering a contract for a player. The other thing that the Egypt football federation has to do is emphasize on respect for leadership so that any extreme character gets to be punished as early as possible and ensure that Egyptian players are able to play professionally. From the fact that fitness issues have been highlighted as being a contributor among the Egyptians, the country should invest in facilities that allow the players to gain the fitness that will transform their games. For example, Ghaly was thrown out of training for being a constant complainant regarding the number of times a team was running during training (Tough & Paul, 23).
In fact, fitness comes at a cost of enduring the pain at training grounds a case, which did not work well with Ghaly. Anyone who understands the course of building stamina in football will agree that someone must get prepared psychologically to burn down the calories.
Balance religious approach
The other thing that the Egyptian players should balance is the religious approach to issues where one uses force to get whatever they want instead of accepting that stiff competition is inevitable. Football is a psychological game as well, and, therefore, insisting that one must appear in the first eleven will not help but frustrate a player. In that respect, players should be thought to understand that there are more players seeking sufficient exposure too (Ahmed, Akbar, 32).
Summary
There is an opportunity to amass so much talent from the young stars if they all managed to play in the European league since there are many competitions that will expose the players to enough challenges for them to develop into fully-fledged players.
Conclusion
The role of the football federation should be cut out in helping the upcoming players pursue their careers in more competitive fronts, to allow them to develop into completely rounded players with exposure to Champions league football competition. This is perhaps, the most competitive of all the competitions in all the European leagues. With that kind of exposure, picking a national team will be very competitive and good for any competition, as well. Previously, the national team has been picked from local players in the local league, and though the ability has been so good, it has not been good enough to propel the team to quarterfinals and beyond in the world cup competitions. The coaching team in the Egypt national team has little blame to carry in the sense that although most players are based in the local league, they are still able to assemble a formidable team for any competition in the African chapter.
Work Cited
Ahmed, Akbar S. The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. , 2013. Print.
Dunn, Troy. Life Is a Football Game. Utah: Covenant Communications Incorporated, 1998. Print
Fang, Irving E. A History of Information Revolutions. Boston: Focal Press, 1997. Print. Fainaru-Wada, Mark, and Steve Fainaru. League of Denial: The NFL, Concussions, and the Battle for Truth. , 2013. Internet resource.
Roth, Philip. The Human Stain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Internet resource. Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, 2012. Print.
Witherick, Michael, and Sue Warn. The Geography of Sport and Leisure. Nelson Thornes, 2003. Print
