Ekramy Ahmad El-Shahat ( arz, إكرامى أحمد الشحات) (born October 26, 1955) is an Egyptian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He played for the Egyptian side

Al Ahly AL, Al, Ål or al may stand for: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Al (''Aladdin'') or Aladdin, the main character in Disney's ''Aladdin'' media * Al (''EastEnders''), a minor character in the British soap opera * Al (''Fullmetal ...

as well as

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

in between 1971–1987, he is one of the best African Goalkeepers of all time in popular view.

Biography

Ekramy known as "Africa Monster", as some fans called him, was born in the city of

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

in October 1955. He joined

's youth in 1969. After less than two years, he was promoted to the first team in 1971, and played his first match in a friendly against Suez SC, in a period in which sports activities were dormant, due to the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition ( ar, حرب الاستنزاف, Ḥarb al-Istinzāf; he, מלחמת ההתשה, Milhemet haHatashah) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from ...

; however, Al Ahly managed to win 5–1. The official debut of the Ekramy was difficult with Al Ahly, as he played against Al Ittihad in the 1972–1973 season, in which Al Ahly were defeat at home 0–1. Hence, people predicted that he would be dropped as the first choice goalkeeper, but coach Abdu Saleh El-Wahsh had faith in him, and gave him an opportunity against

Ismaily Ismaily Sporting Club ( ar, نادي الإسماعيلي الرياضي) is an Egyptian professional football club, established on 20 March 1921 as El Nahda Sporting Club ( ar, جمعية نهضة الشباب المصري ) ( Egyptian pronunci ...

, when Al Ahly won 1–0, which helped Ekramy to commence his career. Later on, Ekramy participated in more than 300 games with Al Ahly, to break the previous record of Adel Hekal, who played in 14 consecutive years. Ekramy decided to retire from the game in 1987, having spent with Al Ahly more than 18 years, that helped him to win the

Egyptian League The Egyptian Premier League ( ar, الدوري المصري الممتاز), also known as WE Egyptian Premier League (WE EPL) after the addition of title sponsor WE, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the top level of th ...

10 times,

Egyptian Soccer Cup The Egypt Cup (also known as Egyptian FA Cup, formerly King Farouk Cup) is the main knockout football cup competition in Egypt. List of finals The following table provides a summary of seasons: Notes: * The Winner and Runner-up of 1960–61 Eg ...

five times, the

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and was ...

three times, and the

CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...

once. He played for the Egyptian national team in

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualifying matches, in addition to three

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

, and the

1975 Mediterranean Games The 1975 Mediterranean Games, officially known as the VII Mediterranean Games, and commonly known as Algiers 1975, were the 7th Mediterranean Games. The Games were held in Algiers, Algeria, from 23 August to 6 September 1975, where 2,444 athletes ...

Personal life

Two of his sons, Ahmad Ekramy (1980–2006) and

Sherif Ekramy Sherif Ekramy Ahmed Ahmed El-Shahat ( ar, شريف إكرامي; born 10 July 1983) is an Egyptian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Pyramids FC and the Egyptian national team. An Al Ahly youth product, Ekramy moved to Dutch club Feyeno ...

also played as goalkeepers for

References

External links

* 1955 births Living people Egyptian footballers Egypt men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Al Ahly SC players 1976 African Cup of Nations players 1980 African Cup of Nations players 1984 African Cup of Nations players Competitors at the 1975 Mediterranean Games Egyptian Premier League players People from Suez Mediterranean Games competitors for Egypt 20th-century Egyptian people 21st-century Egyptian people {{Egypt-footy-goalkeeper-stub