Zamalek s 2007 football league campaign kicked off with a bang. They lost their opening match. They lost their coach, who unexpectedly resigned, and they lost their captain to a chorus of spectator boos that forced him to announce his retirement.
Zamalek are trying to win their first piece of silverware in three years. The graph says they are getting closer to their expressed goal. Three years ago, Zamalek finished in sixth place behind runaway leaders Ahly. The difference between the two was a whopping 38 points. In 2006, Zamalek was second to Ahly s first, 14 points adrift. This past season, though again Zamalek were bridesmaids to their cross-town rivals, the difference had been whittled down to just five points. However, the 1-0 loss to Ismaili in Cairo upended the chart.
The defeat was coupled with the sudden departure of French coach Henri Michel, who had been on the job for only seven months. Citing no reason, Michel quit earlier this month. But now we know the reason why. Last week, Morocco sacked their coach Mohamed Fakhir and selected Michel to replace him. The Moroccan federation gave no explanation for sacking Fakhir but obviously he was given the boot to make way for Michel. Notice that Michel resigned from Zamalek before Fakhir was axed by Morocco. A conspiracy all the way if ever there was one.
But that was not the end of the Zamalek departures. Having played errantly as a substitute against Ismaili, Zamalek captain and general icon Hazim Emam got the works from fans after the game. The booing Emam received so unnerved him he publicly announced he would hang up his boots once and for all.
Emam did not play well against Ismaili; in fact, he has not played well the past three years, simply because the seven coaches the club has employed during that period have, to a man, used him sparingly because of his ubiquitous fitness problems. But the treatment Emam received from his own people was undeserving. One of the best players Egypt has produced the past decade, Emam, the highest paid player in the league at LE 2.3 million, dribbles better than many European and South American players, depending not on speed or strength to get by opponents but the mesmerizing wizardry of his feet.
The first Egyptian to play in the Italian league, in Udinese, Emam can do things with a ball so extraordinary that David Beckham, once participating with Emam in an international publicity stunt to show off ball skills, could only stand in awe of the Egyptian.
At 31, Emam probably will have to retire soon but we didn t want his last match with Ismaili to be his last. Apparently he thought so, too. Emam took a week off, thought things over, then decided to play on.
And it took just a couple days before Zamalek found a new/old coach, Dutchman Ruud Krol. Krol has been through these parts before, coaching Zamalek 10 years ago, as well as being at the helm of the Egyptian team that took the gold medal in the 1995 All-Africa Games and the 1996 African Nations Cup. Krol played with the best – Johan Cruyff, Rob Rensenbrink and Johan Neeskens – and was part of the total football team in the World Cup finals 1974 and 1978 in which every player save the keeper played every position. Krol might impart some of that every which way format onto Zamalek.
What really softened Zamalek s blows was Ahly s 2-2 draw with Misri in their league debut. Though the match was on enemy territory, you have to say Ahly conceded two points because Ahly, the defending champion, was playing a club that finished 10th last year, had lost 2-0 to Ahly last year here and there, and were still introducing themselves to each other after just eight players survived an off-season strip down of the club.
So for the team that seeks to defend its title and the club which seeks to dethrone it, it was not the best of league starts.
