Mustafa Kamel Mansour (2 August 1914 – 24 July 2002) was an Egyptian

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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

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 Medit ...

at the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

. He is also notable for being one of the first non-British or Irish players to play in the Scottish leagues.

Playing career

Born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, Egypt, Mansour played for Cairo-based club

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 ...

in his native country, where his performances earned him a selection for the 1934 World Cup in Italy. He played in Egypt's only game at the tournament, a 4–2 defeat to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

in the first round in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Mansour also played for Egypt at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Egypt's coach at the World Cup had been a Scotsman, James McCrae, and he may have influenced Mansour's decision to move to Scotland in 1936 to attend

Jordanhill College Jordanhill Campus is an historic estate within the boundaries of Jordanhill, Glasgow, Scotland, which developed as a country estate. It is best known and most recently used as the home to the Faculty of Education of the University of Strathcl ...

alongside

Mohamed Latif Mohamed Latif ( ar, ;محمد لطيف 23 October 1909 – 17 March 1990) was an Egyptian professional footballer. He played for the clubs Al-Zamalek of Egypt and Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club b ...

. While studying in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Mansour appeared for the famous amateur side Queens Park, becoming their regular goalkeeper upon the retirement of Desmond White (future chairman of Celtic) during the 1938–39 season.

Coaching career and later life

In the late thirties, "Tuffy" Mansour as he was known, was a popular adult leader in the 72nd Glasgow Scout Troop. Mansour returned to Egypt when the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

broke out, where he would later manage former club Al Ahly, as well as become a government minister. He died in July 2002, a month before what would have been his 88th birthday. Only weeks before his death, he had given an interview to

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

on their visit to

in the run-up to the

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 ...

being held in Japan and South Korea that summer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansour, Mustafa 1914 births 2002 deaths Association football goalkeepers Egyptian footballers Al Ahly SC players Egypt international footballers Queen's Park F.C. players Egyptian football managers 1934 FIFA World Cup players Olympic footballers of Egypt Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Egyptian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Al Ahly SC managers Government ministers of Egypt Egyptian sportsperson-politicians Scottish Football League players Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom