Tala’ea El Gaish’s head coach Abdel Hamid Bassiouni said he developed a tight plan for the match. After the game, he dedicated the title to the spirit of former Defence Minister Mohamed Tantawi who passed away earlier Tuesday.
“I dedicate this victory to the spirit of Field Marshal Tantawi, who built this team, and I thank the players for their efforts,” Bassiouni stated.
He concluded, “We held a closed training camp only a week ago, and some players could not join the team.”
Bassiouni went through a series of difficult bumps and amazing surprises that changed his whole life from failure to success. He was one of the historical scorers in Egyptian football. Bassiouni was nicknamed “The Sniper.”
He was born on 15 December 1972, in Kafr El-Sheikh governorate. Bassiouni played for Kafr El-Sheikh team in the second division of the league and showed great talent at that time.
He moved to Zamalek, and surprised everyone with his performance. In his first season with Zamalek, he won the Golden Boot as top scorer with 15 goals in the 1997/98 season.
Bassiouni was one of the important players in Zamalek SC and achieved four different championships with the team, namely the Egyptian Premier League in 2000/01, the Egypt Cup in 1998, the Afro-Asian Championship in 1998, and the African Cup Winners’ Championship in 1999/2000, in which he scored 5 goals.
He then moved to Ismaily SC to win the Premier League after fierce competition with Al Ahly and Zamalek in the 2001/02 season.
With Ismaily, Bassiouni scored 21 goals in only two seasons in the league, besides two goals in African competitions.
The then newly promoted Haras El Hodoud SC signed Bassiouni in 2003. He played six seasons, in which he scored 30 goals.
Bassiouni was honoured by FIFA in 1999 for breaking the record by scoring three goals in one minute with the Egyptian national team against Namibia in the 2002 World Cup qualifiers.
Bassiouni also won four World Military Cup titles and two African Championships, and was named top scorer in the 2001 World Military Cup. Bassiouni scored 71 goals in the Egyptian Premier League and 13 goals in the African championships.
Since he took charge of Tala’ea El Gaish, he has succeeded in restoring the good quality of many players. He also rediscovered a number of stars last season, most notably Karim Tarek, who moved to Enppi and Ammar Hamdi, who returned to Al Ahly.
