Karim Hafez Ramadan Seifeldin ( ar, كريـم حافظ رمضان سيف الدين; born 12 March 1996) is an Egyptian 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 ...

who plays for

Pyramids A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...

and the Egyptian national team as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Hafez made his top flight debut with Belgian club

Lierse S.K. Koninklijke Lierse Sportkring (), often simply known as Lierse, was a Belgian professional football club from the city of Lier in the Antwerp province. Lierse have won four championship titles and two Belgian Cups. Lierse was one of the six Be ...

on 30 August 2014 against

Waasland-Beveren Sportkring Beveren is a professional Belgian association football club located in the municipality of Beveren, East Flanders. They play in the Belgian First Division B. History The club was founded in 1936 as Red Star and registered to an amate ...

in a 2–0 away defeat. On 20 September 2014, he scored his first league goal against

K.V.C. Westerlo Koninklijke Voetbal Club Westerlo (; often simply called Westerlo) is a Belgian professional football club located in the municipality of Westerlo in the province of Antwerp. Since 1997–98, Westerlo has been mostly playing in the Belgian Pro ...

in a 6–1 away defeat. Hafez continued to play for Lierse’s senior side and was one of their star performers, scoring three goals in the

Jupiler Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

but could not save his club from relegation. Because of his excellent individual play, he was called up to the Egyptian national team by their Argentine manager

Héctor Cúper Héctor Raúl Cúper (; born 16 November 1955) is an Argentine football manager and former player. As a player, he was a defender who spent most of his career at Club Ferro Carril Oeste, where played 463 games. His nickname was "Cabezón" ("Big ...

and made his debut for the Pharaohs in June, coming off the bench in a 2–1 friendly win against

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

. Maged Sami, the owner of both Wadi Degla and Lierse, traveled to Athens to negotiate the transfer of Hafez to

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

, and an agreement was expected to be reached over several days in which the 19-year-old Egypt left-back would join the eleven-time Greek champions on loan for a season, with the option to extend the loan for two additional seasons, according to Lierse announcement on their official website. However, the move took a negative turn because of two disagreements. First, Wadi Degla sought the option of first choice if Hafez should be sold because of an offer by another club. Second, they wanted to be paid about €500,000 if AEK were to qualify for the Champions League in the 2016–17 season. The disagreements regarding the transfer were augmented when Lierse announced the transfer on their official website before it was final, which AEK Athens did not take kindly to. The deal collapsed. Hafez then played for the French club

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), come ...

on loan from Lierse. On 29 August 2018, Hafez was loaned by Wadi Degla to the Turkish club

İstanbul Başakşehir ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

for the season.

International career

In May 2018 he was named in Egypt’s preliminary squad for 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 ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, but he wasn't selected for the final squad.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hafez, Karim 1996 births Sportspeople from Cairo Living people Egyptian footballers Egypt international footballers Association football fullbacks Lierse S.K. players AC Omonia players RC Lens players Wadi Degla SC players İstanbul Başakşehir F.K. players Kasımpaşa S.K. footballers Yeni Malatyaspor footballers Pyramids FC players Belgian First Division A players Belgian First Division B players Cypriot First Division players Egyptian Premier League players Ligue 2 players Süper Lig players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Egyptian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in France Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Turkey Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey