The El-Hadary Case

Many of you know about that crazy Egyptian goalkeeper sitting on the crossbar and moving to the rhythm of the excited crowd!
Many of you remember him for his incredible saves and his well-deserved African Cup of Nations Trophies.

Now Egyptians and Swiss know him for the strange case that has taken place these past weeks.

Super League side FC Sion from Valais (my team) allegedly signed the Egyptian superstar from Al Ahly:
“We signed the player on 14 February and it’s now up to us to find a solution with Al Ahly,” FC Sion spokesman Lars Gansaeuer said.

Al-Ahly wasn’t pleased with the situation: “There is no way the club has agreed to sell the player, because we have only three goalkeepers registered. To my knowledge there’s nothing in his contract that allows him to terminate it unilaterally.” said Al Ahly board member Khaled Mortagy.

Sion has offered Al Ahly US$400,000 for the player, equivalent to the remaining two years of his contract (similar to the Andy Webster case).

A conference with El-Hadary was scheduled last Wednesday at a hotel in Martigny (yet no reports are available on the FC Sion website) yet the Egyptian goalkeeper was allowed to leave for Cairo to take care of all practical issues that might require attention. Sion’s president, Christian Constantin, is confident that FIFA will approve of the transfer after the Webster case.

If El-Hadary stays Vailati will probably have to move to another team. After the terrible mistake in the game against St. Gallen, the FC Sion number 1 has lost the team’s trust and this El-Hadary business will certainly take away his confidence too.

As an FC Sion fan I don’t take this decision with great enthusiasm. Even though Sion’s championship is going down the drain (we aimed at a Champions’ League or UEFA CUP spot at the beginning of the year) punishing Vailati this way and buying a goalkeeper who has no experience whatsoever of European football just shows how undecided and weak the managing of this team has become.

Stay tuned for further news about this case.