Fact No 1: Egypt has been the dominant force in African football.
Save for the Ethiopian-Kenyan domination of middle distance athletics, or South
African chokehold on African Rugby; you would be hard pressed to find a nation
so dominant in a sport in Africa.
Scenario 1: Egypt’s dominance would naturally prompt the
neutral to back the other team, the underdog, in any matchup.
Fact No 2: Factors without football, domestic upheaval following
the Arab spring of 2011, conspired to keep the Africa’s best football team from
the past three subsequent AFCON editions.
These two stubborn facts set the tone for the narrative around Egypt’s
participation in this year’s AFCON in Gabon.
رجل المباراة بلا منازع: الأسطورة 👑 pic.twitter.com/Aix2SNdF6n— Arqam (@ArqamFC) February 1, 2017
Scenario 2: Egypt’s long-term absence from Africa’s premier
sporting event casts a shadow of doubt over their dominance tag: as it is often
said, past performance is not an indicator of future success.
Taken together, it’s more likely that an Egyptian triumph in
AFCON 2017 will be seen as an unlikely sporting triumph rather than an
extension of the same old. Countries like companies are inanimate creatures
whose tales of triumphs are just but surrogate stories of extraordinary people
achieving as part of the collective and as exhibition of individual sacrifices
culminating in personal success.
Egyptian goalkeeper hero of the semifinal against Burkina
Faso, Essam El-Hadary, personifies this Egyptian narrative in AFCON 2017. On
one hand, with four AFCON titles, gunning for the fifth, he is dominance itself
and in the eyes of the neutral, should suffer in the hands of the underdog. On
the other, at 44 years old, thriving at highest echelons of African football,
he is a spectacle in the realm of Rodger Miller. Essam El-Hadary is a living legend;
a freak of nature; a remarkable sporting story.
If this were a romance story it would be a tragedy.
EL-Hadary’s heroics came at the expense of Africa’s brightest youngsters. By
saving both Herve Koffi, Burkina Faso’s goalkeeper who at only 20 years had
saved Egypt’s first penalty, and exciting prospect Bertrand Traore' penalties;
El-Hadary put a shade on their shine. If
Burkina Faso had progressed to the finals , it would have been on the shoulders
of these two young men but sports, football, as Arsene Wenger says is cruel.
Nonetheless, both of Burkina Faso’s youngsters can learn
from Essam El-Hadary the virtue of being ready. It took an injury to Egypt No 1
in their first AFCON 2017 game for Essam El-Hadary to take to the pitch.
Otherwise, he would have been reduced to a relic on the Egyptian bench.
Moreover, El-Shanawy’s misfortune was not enough to place El-Hadary on this path
to G.O.A.T. He had to remain professional- working on his fitness, keeping his
reflexes sharp and his game mode on – all those six years that Egypt was out in
the cold.
El-Hadary had to be ready for this opportunity by battling
younger guys, probably shutting out negative talk that his days were over, that
he couldn’t do it. Most importantly, El-Hadary had to endure the pain of trying
and failing three times over to qualify for this AFCON with Egypt. He took all
that in and lived to tell.
Sunday’s 2017 AFCON final opens another chapter in this
romantic Essam EL-Hadary story. In earnest, Africa waits!
Read Also: Egyptian goalkeeper El Hadary with a 21st century first at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations
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