El
Saka "Captaining the Cup Final in Egypt's Name"
Date: 16-4-2008 Wrote: EP's editor Islam Issa
EXCLUSIVE:
Egyptian veteran defender and Gencler captain Abdel
Zaher El Saka expressed his delight for reaching the
final in cup to EP in an exclusive interview.
EP: How are you feeling after yesterday's
victory against Galatasaray?
El Saka: "It's a beautiful thing to be captain
of a team, and your dream is to lift the trophy in a
foreign country. I'm proud for Egypt and proud to be
doing this in another country in Egypt's name."
EP: No Egyptian has lifted a trophy in Europe before,
as captain that is...
El Saka: "Yes of course it's a really wonderful
thing, and yesterday there was unbelievable happiness
in the players. And we have a really important match
in the league against Trabzonspor, and this has given
us good confidence.
"Also, I've just come new to the team and so when
I'm new, and captain the team to the Cup final, people
have now said that El Saka is back, and now that he's
back, Gencler have returned to trophies. We'd reached
two cup finals before when I was here."
EP: And the Trabzon match has special taste as you're
up against Ayman (Abdelaziz) and Sayed (Moawad)...
El Saka: "The Trabzon match will, for sure,
be very hard because the team is in a sensitive position.
And of course we'll play Ayman! But I think Sayed won't
be able to play as he was in Egypt and just returned."
Watch Saka's assist
EP: So, after our congratulations,
do you have any messages to send?
El Saka: "Care about us a little, as people
who are playing abroad! Kids have to have the right
role-models from when they're young. In Egypt, we concentrate
on the locals and only on the negatives of those abroad.
We want these role-models to be both in Egypt and outside
Egypt. Even myself as a kid, all my dream was to reach
Ahly or Zamalek, but now, there has to be some good
examples abroad so the youth want to play abroad and
not stay in Egypt. We need more examples such as Hossam
Ghaly, Mohamed Shawky and Ahmed Hassan; examples which
make the new generation want to play in Europe."
EP: And that is partly EgyptianPlayers.com's aim...
El Saka: "In Egypt, we have the Egyptian papers
who look for shameful news. When I've been on EgyptianPlayers
it's very unique because it talks even about the internal
news of the players in Europe. Other websites when I go
on them, I see that it's just presenting things that I
can read in the newspapers, but it's a bit different on
EgyptianPlayers. I feel there is some distinction in this
sense, as there is concentration on those abroad in detail."
EP wish El Saka the best of luck in the Turkiye Kupasi
final and will bring you full coverage...
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Read more reports about Egyptian players in the
Turkish league in the professionals page one
Download Ahmed Hassan and El Saka's goals from multimedia
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