Everybody is talking about next Tuesday’s game in Cairo between continental giants Al-Ahly and Barcelona.
The public is excited and should be: Barcelona are the European champions, one of the world’s legendary teams and come to town with enough superstars to produce a nova.
Barca are expected to field the mesmeric and two-time world footballer of the year Ronaldinho, and a supporting galactic cast including Samuel Eto o, Lionel Messi, Deco, Gianluca Zambrotta, Lilian Thuram and Javier Saviola.
So famous are they that Al-Ahly will have three bodyguards for every Barca player to keep the fans at bay.
Barcelona is to get $2 million for the game but it won’t cost Al-Ahly a dime; sponsors will take care of all the financial matters. Not that Barcelona need the money. Last year, the club was the second richest in the world with estimated revenues of ?259.1 million.
Wealth and reputation have brought the Catalan club immense talent, now and before. Maradona, Cruyff, Ronaldo, Hagi, Larsson, Romario, Rivaldo, Stoitchkov, Lineker and Figo have all graced the pitch of Barcelona’s majestic playground, the Nou Camp.
Such illustrious names belie the relatively meager haul of only two European Cups, both won in the past 15 years. But their successors are close to repeating a second consecutive La Liga triumph. With eight games left Barca are four points clear of nearest challengers Sevilla and five ahead of historical rivals Real Madrid.
Many Barca members have a story to tell about Egypt. Ronaldinho was a prodigy in the making when he played for Brazil in the under-17 World Cup staged in Egypt in 1997.
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol, Hernandez Xavi and Andres Iniesta were on the Spanish side that beat Egypt 2-0 in Spain just a week before last year’s World Cup (Spain was pitted against Tunisia and Saudi Arabia and so had a taste of Arab football).
Barca’s Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard will forever remember being turned into a pretzel by Gamal Abdel-Hamid’s left and right feints on the flank when Egypt famously tied with Holland 1-1 in the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
And Barcelona and Al-Ahly were a game away from meeting in the final of the World Club Championship in Japan in December. In the end, Barcelona finished second, Al-Ahly third.
Barcelona did meet Al-Ahly once before, a game whose end result we hope won’t be repeated. In a friendly in 1961 in Cairo the Spanish side pummeled the hosts 6-1. From the invaders, Hungarian Kocsis Sandor of the Mighty Magyars scored as did the Brazilian Evaristo. Taha Ismail managed to net Al-Ahly’s consolation goal.
However, more often than not, visitors to Egypt rarely exhibit such fire power. Friendly encounters often degenerate into yawning performances by visiting teams who, as in Barcelona’s case, spend only 24 hours in the country and are often too weary to give their all after the perennial visit to the Pyramids and the other Egyptian landmarks they like to snap, all on match day.
That’s what happened to Real Madrid in 2001. Al-Ahly deservedly won the game 1-0 but Real players of the quality of Zinedine Zidane, Figo and Raul were clearly missing in action that day following a full day of sightseeing duty in the August sun.
Everyone hopes Barcelona will be alive as they play their part in Al-Ahly’s 100th birthday bash. Fate had a hand in the game being played on April 24, match day, which marked the first meeting of the members of Al-Ahly’s board in 1907.
Al-Ahly benefited from Barcelona s early exit from this season s Champions League at the hands of Liverpool, for had Barcelona kept winning, there’s no way they would have played any friendly if the European cup was still in sight.
The day after, Wednesday, is a national holiday, Sinai Liberation Day. So, a night of fireworks in the sky and on the field awaits.
