Essam El-Hadary Leaves Al Ahly…Again

By: Inara | March 30th, 2008

Al Ahly goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary has been in the news quite frequently in recent weeks. We at the Offside and World Cup Blog seem to be writing about him every week.

For those of you needing a recap, El-Hadary has been trying to use the Webster Ruling to force his current club, Al Ahly, to release him from his contract so that he can play for FC Sion. The Webster Ruling allows a player to buy out the remaining years of his contract if they’ve already completed at least two years of that contract (three years if he’s under 28).

El-Hadary was hoping that since he’s been with Al Ahly for so many years, they would allow him to move to Sion once he bought out his remaining contract, which is worth 270,000 euros. But Al Ahly said no on the grounds that El-Hadary didn’t give his club the required notice period. FC Sion contested that, and what’s left is a big mess that no one can make sense of.

Legal issues aside, El-Hadary’s sneaky attempts to leave his club hasn’t gone over well with the supporters, who are so furious that they not only want El-Hadary out of Al Ahly but also out of Egypt’s national team.

In a friendly with Argentina last week, fans booed and whistled every time El-Hadary touched the ball and made it clear to him that he no longer deserved to represent their country. Understandably, Egypt lost 2-0.

And now, El-Hadary has had enough. Taking just two days to pack his bags, yesterday he marched straight to the airport – surrounded by security guards – and jumped onto the next flight to Switzerland.

Says El-Hadary:

“I’m going to sign with Sion because nobody could withstand the bad treatment I’ve been subjected to recently and I can’t take any more.”

Unfortunately for El-Hadary, his situation still hasn’t been resolved yet since Al Ahly have yet to terminate his contract. FIFA have so far remained silent on the matter, mostly because Al Ahly aren’t breaking any laws. Webster Ruling or not, a player has to give his club a required notice period, which El-Hadary didn’t.

So don’t hold your breath, guys. Chances are that El-Hadary will be back in Egypt by the end of the week.