Mohamed Aboutrika

Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Aboutrika (Arabic: محمد محمد محمد أبو تريكة‎ (repeated three times); born 7 November 1978) is an Egyptian retired professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder and a forward.

In the second half, America scored an equalizer, but just as usual, Aboutrika appeared in the 79th minute with a skilled ball, he showed yet again why he is on the shortlist for the African player of the year.

After surging out of midfield and finding Flavio Amado with a pinpoint pass, the mercurial playmaker latched on to the Angolan's return ball and calmly slotted the ball past the Mexican goalkeeper for his third goal of the tournament.

Al Ahly won the third place, after Aboutrika lifted his team to an unprecedented result for the Egyptian club or any African outfit.

He finished as the tournament's top scorer with 3 goals in 3 matches.

He was the winning goal assistant, in the semi-final match against Senegal when Amr Zaki scored in the 80th minute.

He was very dominant in that game, but his accurate shot hit the bar.

In the final match, Aboutrika scored the decisive penalty in the shoot-out which gave Egypt the title.

He was the top scorer of the competition with 8 goals, and scored the winning goal in the final against CS Sfaxien in the 91st

minute.

He also participated with Al Ahly in winning the CAF Super Cup against FAR Rabat of Morocco, days after the Africa Cup of Nations in February.

In the first half of Egyptian league 2003–2004, Aboutrika scored 3 goals for Tersana.

He scored 11 goals in his first 13 appearances with Al Ahly in 2003–2004 season (all in the league), coming in the second place between top scorers in the Egyptian League with 14 goals.

In January 2004, he was offered a position in Egypt's and Africa's top football team, Al Ahly.

Aboutrika's efforts with Ahly led to attention from the Egyptian national team, and he started the game against Trinidad and Tobago in a friendly match before the World Cup 2006 qualifiers on 31 March 2004 in Arab Contractors Stadium.

The first starting game for Aboutrika ended 2–1 for the Egyptians.

He started as an attacker, but was found to play better when he played his normal position behind the attackers in the attacking midfield position.

Aboutrika scored his first national goal in this game.

He scored 5 goals in his first 6 appearances with Egypt between 2004 and 2005.

In 2005, Al Ahly regained the Egyptian League Championship after four years out of the top position, Aboutrika finished 3rd in the goalscoring rankings in the Egyptian League, while also helping his teammate Emad Moteab finish as the competition's top scorer.

Also in 2005, Aboutrika played a great role in Al Ahly victory of the 2005 CAF Champions League, he scored an amazing goal in the final with an outrageous effort from 30 yards out against Étoile Sportive du Sahel of Tunisia in a game that ended 3–0 for Al Ahly.

Al Ahly qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship but finished last, Aboutrika told FIFA.com the reason, saying: "Our problem was that we lost our form, for some reason we could not play like we had before arriving in Japan".

Aboutrika won the African Cup of Nations in 2006 with the Egyptian national team.

He helped his club Al Ahly to win the bronze medal in the FIFA Club World Cup in 2006.

Off the pitch, he has been noted for both various humanitarian efforts as well as his philanthropy in Egypt.

He proved to be his international team's trump card en route to victory in the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in February, when he scored two important goals against Libya and Ivory Coast.

Aboutrika led Al Ahly to the 2006 CAF Champions League title for the second successive time in November 2006.

Japanese newspapers nominated Aboutrika to be one of the best players in 2006 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, the last tournament in Aboutrika's great year.

Al Ahly was one of the African representatives, and the first team ever to be qualified two successive times to this championship, and the first African team to win a medal in that competition.

In the opening match of the tournament against Auckland City FC of New Zealand on 10 Dec 2006, Aboutrika helped Al Ahly to secure and book a semi-final date with Internacional of Brazil.

Al Ahly won 2–0 easily, and Aboutrika capped a fine display by stroking a superbly flighted free-kick over the wall, scoring the second goal for his team.

As well as netting with his delightful right-foot effort, Aboutrika was at the heart of most his side's best moves, dictating the rhythm with his skill and vision.

In the semi-finals, Al Ahly faced Brazilian Internacional on 13 December 2006, and Aboutrika played a good game, but his accurate shot hit the Brazilian right-hand post to deprive his team from a deserved draw.

Al Ahly lost the match 2–1, but proved a good efficiency, yet the ball refused to be netted in many available chances to score in Brazilian goalkeeper.

Al Ahly faced Club América of Mexico, for the third place, and Aboutrika gave Al Ahly the lead with an amazing free-kick over the wall, ending the first half 1–0 for Al Ahly.

Aboutrika won all but one of the competitions he participated in that year for club and country, and got the bronze medal for Al Ahly in 2006 FIFA Club World Cup.

He was the top scorer in three competitions, which are 2006 FIFA Club World Cup with 3 goals, Egyptian Premier League with 18 goals and 2006 CAF Champions League with 8 goals.

He won the African Footballer of the Year award in 2008 beating the previous years winner Emmanuel Adebayor, and was one of five nominees for the 2006 award, and one of the ten nominated for the 2013 award.

He also scored the winning goal to help Egypt win the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.

Locally, he got the Egyptian Premier League in June when he was the top scorer by 18 goals, and won Egypt Cup, then the Egyptian Super Cup in July when he scored the winning goal against ENPPI in the 92nd minute despite having suffered an injury in the first half.