A senior official at the Egyptian club Al-Ahly has slammed an agent for trying to suggest that Celtic is interested in his player – Al-Ahly’s player – on the eve of their Asian Champions League Final with either Zamalek or Raja Casablanca at the end of this month.
The agent in question, Abdelrahman Ismail, stands accused of “needlessly” distracting the player prior to that match, in an outburst which Celtic fans can readily understand and appreciate.
Ismali’s player is the Egyptian international midfielder Mohamed Magdy, 23.
Reports this week have suggested that Celtic has made him an offer and wants to bring him to Europe only to loan him out for a season to give him experience of first team football on this continent.
The reports, first published, here in Scotland, in The Daily Record, are not dissimilar to those which that newspaper frequently writes in apparent efforts to unsettle our own players, and so it isn’t difficult to either understand or sympathise with the Egyptian club and its owner.
This is what agents do, they cause these sort of issues, and especially those who are impatient to move on a hot property.
Magby might not be a household name in this part of the world, but he would not be the first player from that corner of the globe to move to Europe and blaze a trail for himself; his countryman and fellow international Mohammed Salah started his own career at Al Mokawloon Al Arab SC, in the Egyptian league, before moving to Basle.
It is a part of the world Celtic has long kept an eye on, and so it’s no impossible to believe that we’ve been watching the player … but Sayed Abdel Hafeez, who is Al-Ahly’s Director of Football has claimed that the story is entirely untrue.
“Firstly, there has been no offer for Mohamed from Celtic or anyone else,” he said. “And secondly, this is not the time … all our focus is on the Champions League Final and this kind of needless talk is distracting for both the player and the club.
That would appear to be fairly definitive, and we cannot blame him for being upset with this kind of speculation so close to a major game.