Shikabala, Hadary, Fathy and Salah among top global players

CAIRO – 2 April: Four Egyptian players made it to the World Soccer magazine’s list of the top 500 players in 2018.

The four footballers are Mahmoud Abdel Razek Shikabala of Al Raed FC, Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, Ahmed Fathi of Al Ahly and Essam El-Hadary of the Saudi club Al- Taawoun.

Shikabala made a comeback in his career when he joined Al Raed FC on a loan from Zamalek SC. His stunning performance at the Saudi club earned him a spot in the national team.

Ahmed Fathi, 33, won 16 titles with Al-Ahly in national and African competitions. He is also a three-time African Cup winner, earning the title in 2006, 2008 and 2010. He participated in qualifying Egypt to the 2018 World Cup.

“It’s an honor to represent my country in the world’s top 500 best players in the world,” Fathi said on his official Twitter account.

The eldest player in the national team, El-Hadary is currently playing for Al-Taawoun FC. He also played a huge role in qualifying Egypt to the 2018 World Cup.

Last, but not least, was Mohamed Salah, top scorer at Liverpool and the Premier League. Salah won the African Footballer of the Year Award in 2017, won two titles with Basel FC and two titles with Chelsea FC. He scored the winning goal against Congo in the World Cup qualification match. He is now competing for the Golden Boot as he leads the goal scorers list with 37 goals in all the competitions.

Those four Egyptian players weren’t the only Arabic players in the list. There were players from Morocco: Real Madrid’s player Achraf Hakimi, Sofiane Boufal of Southampton FC and Medhi Benatia of Juventus. There were also players from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Qatar and Syria.

Other famous players of different nationalities have been added to the list, including Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Gianluigi Buffon, Harry Kane.

The magazine mentioned that Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France, Spain and Italy all have more than 20 players selected. They have also arranged the 500 players into alphabetical order of country and player name.