Youssef Obama

Youssef Ibrahim (Arabic: يوسف إبراهيم‎; born 26 May 1995), nicknamed Youssef Obama (Arabic: يوسف اوباما‎),[2] is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a Midfielder for Egyptian Premier League club Zamalek.

Youssef Obama
Personal information
Full name Youssef Ibrahim[1]
Date of birth (1995-12-02) 2 December 1995
Place of birth Alexandria, Egypt[1]
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Zamalek
Number 11
Youth career
2007–2014 Zamalek
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014– Zamalek 70 (13)
2015–2016 → Al Ittihad (loan) 32 (7)
2016–2017 → Wadi Degla (loan) 13 (2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

A product of the Zamalek youth system, he made his debut for the club in the Egyptian Premier League in 2014. He was sent out on loan twice between 2015 and 2016, with Al Ittihad and Wadi Degla, before returning to Zamalek.

Career

Obama began his career with Zamalek, being promoted from the under-23 squad to the first team in July 2014 by manager Mido.[3][4] He was given the nickname Obama due to his resemblance to former U.S. President Barack Obama.[2] In 2015, he joined Al Ittihad on a season long loan deal, along with teammate Ahmed Samir.[5] He scored seven goals in 31 appearances to finish the season as the club's top goalscorer.[3]

During his loan spell with Al Ittihad, Obama missed the funeral of his mother in order to play for the club. Having learned of his mother's death hours before a match against El Entag El Harby, he decided to remain with the squad and scored the winning goal in the match before breaking down in tears during his celebration. He later commented, "I wanted to follow my mother’s wishes not to leave my team for any reason."[6] Obama attracted worldwide attention for his reaction to missing a penalty during an Egyptian Premier League match while on loan with Al Ittihad. After seeing his penalty saved, Obama ran straight off the pitch and into the tunnel forcing manager Mokhtar Mokhtar to make a substitution as he failed to return to the pitch.[7][8]

The following year was sent out on loan again with Wadi Degla, scoring twice in fourteen appearances.[9] After returning to Zamalek, Obama agreed a transfer to Portuguese side C.D. Feirense following the expiration of his contract.[10] However, the transfer was later cancelled and he signed a new four-year contract with Zamalek.[9]

Honours

Zamalek[1]

( 9 titles)

References
  1. Youssef Obama at Soccerway. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  2. Mahmud El-Shafey (17 June 2018). "For Egypt's new breed of footballers, everything's in a nickname". The Arab Weekly. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  3. Salma Abdallah (2 August 2016). "Degla sign Youssef Obama & Ibrahim Abdel-Khalek on loan". KingFut.com. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  4. "Zamalek decides to restore Obama". Egypt Today. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  5. "Zamalek offload 9 players ahead of new season". Ahram Online. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  6. Mohaned Ghanem (24 October 2015). "Obama: I played because of my mother's wishes". KingFut.com. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  7. "Gêné d'avoir manqué un penalty décisif, il trouve une astuce pour éviter les moqueries (vidéo)" [Embarrassed to have missed a decisive penalty, he finds a trick to avoid mockery (video)] (in French). RTL. 26 November 2016.
  8. Dimitri Eeckhaut (26 November 2016). "Obama mist cruciale penalty in blessuretijd en heeft dan opzienbarende reactie in huis" (in Dutch). HLN Sport. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  9. Salma Abdallah (26 July 2017). "Youssef Obama rejoins Zamalek, his Feirense move is off". KingFut.com. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  10. Abdelrahman Amr (19 July 2017). "Youssef Obama on the verge of joining Portuguese side CD Feirense". KingFut.com. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
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