Essam Kamal Tawfiq El Hadary ( ar, عصام كمال توفيق الحضري; born 15 January 1973) is an Egyptian

goalkeeping coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hun ...

and former professional

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 ...

. Nicknamed the "High Dam", El Hadary spent the largest portion of his club career with

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 ...

, with whom he won eight

Egyptian Premier 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 ...

titles, four

Egypt 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 ...

s, four

Egyptian Super Cup The Egyptian Super Cup is Egyptian football's annual match contested between the champions of the previous Egyptian Premier League season and the holders of the Egypt Cup. If the Egyptian Premier League champions also won the Egypt Cup then the ...

s, four

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 ...

titles, three

CAF Super Cup The CAF Super Cup (also known as African Super Cup or for sponsorship reasons TotalEnergies CAF Super Cup) is an annual African association football competition contested between the winners of the CAF Champions League and the CAF Confederation ...

s, one

Arab Club Champions Cup The Arab Club Champions Cup ( ar, كأس العرب للأندية الأبطال, french: Ligue des Champions Arabe) is an annual regional club football competition organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) and contested by eli ...

, and two

Arab Super Cup The Arab Super Cup ( ar, الكأس العربية الممتازة) was an Arab football competition, held between four teams (the winners and runners-up of both the Arab Club Champions Cup and the Arab Cup Winners' Cup The Arab Cup Winners' ...

s. Third on the list of all-time appearances for

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 ...

, El Hadary made 159 international appearances for his nation between 1996 and 2018. He won the

Africa 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 ...

four times, and was named the tournament's best goalkeeper on three occasions. In the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

, at the age of 45 years and 161 days, he became the oldest player in history to play in a World Cup match. After his retirement, he was very close to being the goalkeeping coach of

Étoile Sahel Étoile may refer to: Places ;France * Charles de Gaulle – Étoile, station of the Paris Métro * Étoile-Saint-Cyrice, commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in France * Étoile-sur-Rhône, commune in the Drôme department in France * L'Éto ...

of Tunisia, to be part of the technical staff under the leadership of

Jorvan Vieira Jorvan Vieira (born September 29, 1953) is a Brazilian-Portuguese football coach and former player who played for Botafogo, Vasco da Gama and Portuguesa in the Brazil Serie A, and a current manager of ENPPI. Career Playing career Vieira was ...

after agreeing to sign the contract, but he was forced to retreat in the end due to his mother's illness.

Club career

El Hadary was born in Kafr El Battikh,

Damietta Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

. His father was a craftsman who owned his own workshop making furniture. El Hadary took up playing football without his parents' knowledge, washing his muddy clothes in a local river after playing in order to avoid them knowing. He was spotted by his local football team before being signed by

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club

at age 17. In his first training session, he was offered goalkeeping gloves, having previously never worn a pair, but refused to wear them and would run the to training every day. He made his first team debut for Damietta in 1993 at the age of 20, and after two seasons signed a pre-contract with Egyptian champions

. In 12 years at the Cairo club he won eight

titles, four

s, four

titles, three

s, one

, and two

s. Swiss club

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

announced that they had signed El Hadary on a four-year contract in February 2008, despite objections from his club, Al Ahly, due to the fact that he was still under contract with them. El Hadary was fined and suspended by Al Ahly, before world governing body FIFA gave permission for Sion to complete the deal. In 2009, FIFA suspended El Hadary and penalized Sion, even though he had already decided to return to Egypt. In July, while his suspension was stayed by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

(CAS), El Hadary moved to Egyptian Premier League side

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 ...

. In 2010, his four month suspension was upheld by the CAS, and in January a Swiss civil court upheld the ban and fines and additionally ordered him to pay FIFA's court costs. In December 2010, after a brief stint with

Zamalek SC Zamalek Sporting Club ( ar, نادي الزمالك للألعاب الرياضية), commonly referred to as Zamalek, is an Egyptian sports club based in Giza. It is one of the most successful football clubs in Africa and the Middle East, an ...

, El Hadary moved to Sudanese club Al-Merreikh. After boycotting practices due to a pay dispute, he was loaned to

Al-Ittihad Alexandria Al Ittihad Alexandria, also known as Al Ittihad Elsakandry, is a basketball club based in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The team plays in the Egyptian Basketball Premier League. The team is widely considered one of the basketball powerhouse of Egy ...

, but after a stadium riot in Port Said led to the suspension of the

2011–12 Egyptian Premier League The 2011–12 Egyptian Premier League was the fifty-fifth season of the Egyptian Premier League since its establishment in 1948. The season began on 14 October 2011, with a total of 19 teams contesting the league. Al Ahly won the last seven lea ...

season he returned to Sudan again. After his contract with Al-Merreikh expired, he returned to Egypt, joining Wadi Degla in 2013, moving back to Ismaily in 2014, and returning again to Wadi Degla in 2015. Throughout this period, he continued to be acclaimed one of the best footballers ever to play for Egypt or anywhere in Africa; in 2013 he was included in

Bleacher Report Bleacher Report (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sport and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. Bleacher Report was acquired by Turner Broadcasting System in Aug ...

's "50 Greatest African Players of All Time" list, ranked number 6. In 2017, an argument with a teammate led to El Hadary being thrown off the Wadi Degla team briefly. In June of that year, he signed for Al-Taawoun to become the first foreign goalkeeper to play in Saudi Arabia. On 2 July 2018, it was confirmed that El Hadary had joined

for the third time in his career. On 28 January 2019, El Hadary signed with Nogoom. However, he left the club following their relegation at the end of the season. On 18 November 2020, El Hadary announced his official retirement in order to start his coaching career.

International career

El Hadary represented

a total of 159 times from his debut in 1996 until his retirement in 2018. He won the

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 ...

four times with his country. He was chosen as the best goalkeeper in the 2006 African Cup of Nations, held in homeland Egypt, in the

2008 African Cup of Nations The 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the MTN Africa Cup of Nations due to the competition's sponsorship by MTN, was the 26th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football tournament for nations affiliated to the Confede ...

, held in Ghana and for the

2010 African Cup of Nations The 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 27th Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was held in Angola, where it began on 10 January 20 ...

, held in Angola. In January 2013, his agent

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that El Hadary had retired from international football after being benched for a run of games, being the 23rd most capped international player in history and also the player with most African Cup of Nations titles. He returned to the national team in a match against

Bosnia Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

on 5 March 2014, winning 2–0. KSA-EGY (9)

On 4 June 2016, El Hadary played the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 win against

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

which secured Egypt's qualification for

2017 Africa Cup of Nations The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (abbreviated as AFCON 2017 or CAN 2017), known as the Total 2017 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 31st edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football champions ...

. On 17 January 2017, two days after his 44th birthday, he became the oldest player to ever appear in an

match after replacing Ahmed El-Shenawy in Egypt's first match of the tournament. On 1 February 2017, El Hadary saved two penalties as Egypt defeated

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

4–3 in a penalty shoot-out to advance to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Final. In June 2018, at the age of 45, he was named in Egypt's 23-man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia. He was the oldest of all players selected for the tournament, beating the record set by Colombian goalkeeper

Faryd Mondragón Faryd Camilo Mondragón Alí (born 21 June 1971) is a Colombian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Since his debut in 1993, he has played over 50 times for the Colombia national team. He was named in the Colombia squ ...

in the previous edition of the tournament. On 25 June, El Hadary was handed a start in Egypt's final group match against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

to become the oldest player ever to play in and debut at a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

at the age of 45 years and 161 days, once again breaking Mondragón's record of 43 years and three days. El Hadary stopped a penalty kick in the first half of the match, but subsequently conceded from a second penalty just before half time; his team eventually lost the game 2–1 after conceding a goal in stoppage time. On 7 August 2018, El Hadary announced his international retirement at the age of 45, having made 159 international appearances for Egypt. In November 2019, the

FIFA World Football Museum The FIFA Museum is an association football museum operated by FIFA. The museum is located in Zürich, Switzerland, across town from the FIFA headquarters. It opened on 28 February 2016. The project, costing over SFr500 million ($563m), is current ...

exhibited El Hadary's gloves of his World Cup match for being the tournament's oldest player and first African goalkeeper ever to save a penalty.

Career statistics

International

Sources:

Honours

Al Ahly *

: 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07 *

: 2000–01, 2002–03, 2005–06, 2006–07 *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, 2007 *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Sion *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

: 2008–09 Al Merreikh *

Sudan Premier League Sudan Premier League ( ar, الدوري السوداني الممتاز) is the top division of the Sudan Football Association, it was created in 1965. It starts on August 1 and ends May 31. Sudan Premier League Clubs 2022-23 Championship hist ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Sudan Cup The Sudan Cup is the top knockout tournament of the Sudanese football. It was created in 1990. Preliminaries Pegin 1 Agustus / End 31 May *Round 32 ( Sudan Premier League Clubs and National League 1 Clubs) *Round 16 *Quarter-Finals *Semi-fi ...

: 2012 Egypt *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Pan Arab Games The Arab Games ( ar, الألعاب العربية), also called the Pan Arab Games, are a regional multi-sport event held between nations from the Arab world. They are organized by the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees. The first Game ...

Egypt Military *

World Military Cup The World Military Cup is a football competition for national military teams. It is organized by the International Military Sports Council (CISM). The tournament has been held since 1946 and was originally called the World Military Championship. ...

: 2001 Egypt U23 *

All-Africa Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (AN ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

;Individual * CAF Champions League Best Goalkeeper:

* Africa Cup of Nations Best Goalkeeper:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

References

Notes

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hadary, Essam 1973 births Living people Egyptian footballers People from Damietta Egypt international footballers Egyptian expatriate footballers Association football goalkeepers Al Ahly SC players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2008 Africa Cup of Nations players 2010 Africa Cup of Nations players FC Sion players Swiss Super League players FIFA Century Club 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players Al-Merrikh SC players Africa Cup of Nations-winning players Wadi Degla SC players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Al-Taawoun FC players Saudi Professional League players Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Sudan Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Egyptian Premier League players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Ismaily SC players Zamalek SC players Al Ittihad Alexandria Club players Damietta SC players Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Sudan Nogoom FC players

Club career

International career

Career statistics

International

Honours

See also

References

Notes

External links