Abdel-Karim Ezzat Sakr (; born 8 November 1918 – 5 March 1994) was an

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

who played for

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

. He played most of his career with Zamalek, and achieved 14 titles with the club. Starting his professional career with

Al Ahly Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...

, he is the all-time top-scorer of the

Cairo Derby The Cairo derby () or the Top Match (), known as the Arab Classico () is a rivalry between Egyptian Association football, football clubs Al Ahly SC, Al Ahly and Zamalek SC, Zamalek, arguably the two most successful clubs in Egypt and Africa. Al A ...

, with 19 goals (10 goals for Zamalek and 9 goals for Al Ahly). Sakr is the only player to score in both derbies ending with the largest score in history, as Zamalek defeated Al Ahly with a score of 6–0 twice, in the

1941–42 Cairo League 1941–42 Cairo League, the 21st Cairo League competition, Ahly won the competition for the 12th time. League table (C)= Champions, Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; ...

and the

1944 Egypt Cup Final 1944 Egypt Cup Final, was the final match of 1943–44 Egypt Cup, when Zamalek (Farouk) defeated Al-Ahly by a score of 6–0, the largest winning margin in the derby and Egypt cup finals, Zamalek claimed the cup for the 7th time. Route to the fi ...

, respectively.

Career

Sakr joined

, he scored hattrick in his first match against Zamalek to be the second player to score hattrick in the history of the

in 1937, the match ended 5-0 for Al Ahly and El Tetsh scored the other two goals. In 1939, Sakr moved to

from Al Ahly for the then a record amount of 50

Egyptian pound The Egyptian pound ( ; abbreviations: £, E£, £E, LE, or EGP in Latin alphabet, Latin, and in Arabic script, Arabic, ISO 4217, ISO code: EGP) is the official currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 piastres, (or qirsh, ; ''plural'' ; abb ...

. He achieved an outstanding record with the team. He won with Zamalek the

Cairo League The Cairo League was an Official Egyptian football tournament. Before the start of Egyptian Premier League in its current form, the main competition was the Egypt Cup which started in 1922. The first season was played in 1922–23 and was won by Z ...

title for nine seasons, and four titles of the

Egypt Cup The Egypt Cup (also known as the Egyptian FA Cup and formerly as the King Farouk Cup) is the main knockout football cup competition in Egypt. It is the oldest club competition in Africa. The first team to win the trophy was Zamalek in 1922. Al A ...

and the King Fouad Cup once. Sakr scored twice in two Cairo derbies, when

won

with a score of 6–0 in the two games, in the

and

1944 Egypt Cup final 1944 Egypt Cup Final, was the final match of 1943–44 Egypt Cup, when Zamalek (Farouk) defeated Al-Ahly by a score of 6–0, the largest winning margin in the derby and Egypt cup finals, Zamalek claimed the cup for the 7th time. Route to the fi ...

Sakr is the all-time goal scorer of the Cairo derby with a record of 19 goals (10 for Zamalek and 9 for Al Ahly), a record which hasn’t been broken to date. In 1945, He was offered a £40,000 contract to play for

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

but he refused and returned to Egypt with his fellow player

Mohamed El-Guindi Mohamed El-Din El-Guindi (; 1920 – 13 November 1995) was an Egyptian footballer who played for the national team. He competed for Egypt in the men's tournament at the 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the G ...

. Sakr played for Zamalek for 14 consecutive seasons, he achieved an impressive record with the team, and scored over 100 goals for Zamalek in all competitions. He represented

in the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

when he was 17 years old, scoring Egypt's only goal in the tournament. He also represented his country in the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

. Sakr played almost 26 international caps with his country and scored 14 international goals.

Honours

Al Ahly *

: 1936–37 *

: 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1938–39 *

Sultan Hussein Cup The Sultan Hussein Cup (1917–1938) was the first local Egyptian football competition. It preceded the Egypt Cup and the regional leagues in the areas of Cairo, Alexandria, Bahary and Canal Canals or artificial waterways are wat ...

: 1937–38 Zamalek *

: 1940–41, 1942–43, 1943–44, 1951–52 *

: 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45, 1946–47, 1948–49, 1950–51, 1951–52, 1952–53 * King Fouad Cup: 1940–41

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakr, Abd El-Karim 1918 births 1994 deaths Footballers from Cairo Egyptian men's footballers Egypt men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Zamalek SC players Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Egypt 20th-century Egyptian sportsmen