Adam Mohamad El-Abd (; born 11 September 1984) is a retired professional footballer who played as a defender. El-Abd made over 500 first team appearances in his professional career and also played for the Egypt national team.

Early and personal life

Born in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...

, to an Egyptian father and a British mother, El-Abd holds dual-nationality. His older brother Joe played professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and is a coach at

Castres Olympique Castres Olympique (, ) is a French rugby union club located in the Occitanian city of Castres and is currently competing in the Top 14, the top level of the French league system. Founded in 1898, the club took its current name in 1906. They pla ...

. His younger brother Sami was an apprentice at Brighton, before moving into

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

with

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1896 as Crawley Foo ...

, Hayes & Yeading United,

Whitehawk Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was originall ...

Bognor Regis Town Bognor Regis Town Football Club is an English football club based in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Nicknamed 'The Rocks’, the club is an FA Chartered Standard Community club affiliated to the Sussex County Football Association. They currently co ...

Dorking Wanderers Dorking Wanderers Football Club is a professional football club based in Dorking, Surrey, England. Affiliated to the Surrey County Football Association, they are currently members of and play at Meadowbank. Formed in 1999 by a group of friends ...

and

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

Club career

Brighton & Hove Albion

El-Abd joined

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

's youth department when he was nine and was granted a scholarship there at 16. He signed his first professional contract of two and a half years at the age of 19. He made his full league début for the club in the 2–1 win at

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

in November 2003. He was then a regular in the first team squad, playing either in defence at right-back or centre-half, or in a more defensive midfield role. During the game at

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 ...

on 18 March 2008, El-Abd was stretchered off with

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), also called the superficial medial collateral ligament (sMCL) or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint and occurs in ...

damage and ruled out for the remainder of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. In June 2008, El-Abd signed a new two-year deal with Brighton. He won the Seagulls Player of the Season award for their League One winning 2010–11 campaign. El-Abd hit the milestone of 250 league appearances for Brighton on 7 March 2012, named Man of the Match in a 2–2 draw with Cardiff City. El-Abd made his 300th and final league appearance for the Seagulls coming on as a 90th-minute substitute against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

on 11 January 2014.

Bristol City

On 16 January 2014, El-Abd transferred to League One club

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

for an undisclosed fee. Rarely used at Bristol City, he spent time out on loan at Bury,

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

, and Gillingham.

Shrewsbury Town

After his contract at Bristol City expired, he moved to League One club

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

on a free transfer in July 2016, signing a two-year contract, where he immediately became

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in place of the departed Nathaniel Knight-Percival. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 home victory against Chesterfield on 20 August, but was sent off in a 2–1 defeat at former club Bury three weeks later. After the departure of Shrewsbury manager

Micky Mellon Michael Joseph Mellon (born 18 March 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is the manager of club Oldham Athletic. As a player, he was a midfielder for clubs including Bristol City, West Bromwich Albion, Blackp ...

, El Abd scored a "30 yard half-volley" in a 1–1 draw away at

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

on 29 October, to hand new boss

Paul Hurst Paul Michael Hurst (born 25 September 1974) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he was a left back from 1993 to 2008, notably playing his entire career at Rotherham United, bar a brief loan spell with Burton Albion i ...

a point in his first match in charge. El-Abd left the club at the end of June 2017 after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent.

Wycombe Wanderers

On 3 July 2017, El-Abd signed a two-year contract with League Two side

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

. In May 2018 he extended his contract for a further year, to the end of the 2019–20 season. El-Abd left Wycombe on 2 September 2019 by mutual consent.

Stevenage

He signed for

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

on 6 September 2019, but was released by the Hertfordshire side at the end of the 2019–20 season having made just 4 appearances in all competitions.

Whitehawk

El-Abd joined

on 5 August 2020, firstly as player-assistant manager, then as a player and assistant U18 coach for the 2021–22 season, before leaving at the end of the season.

Worthing

On 8 June 2022, El-Abd joined newly promoted

National League South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...

club

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

, linking up with former Brighton teammate Adam Hinshelwood, now Worthing manager.

International career

El-Abd stated in a 2005 interview with ''EgyptianPlayers.com'' that he intended to play for the

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 ...

national side if he got the call. On 15 May 2012, and for the first time, Egypt national team coach

Bob Bradley Robert Frank Bradley (born March 3, 1958) is an American association football, soccer coach, who most recently managed Norwegian football team Stabæk Fotball, Stabæk fron 2023 - 2024. A native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton Universi ...

included El-Abd in the squad for friendly games against

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

, and

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

, and also against

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

in a FIFA World Cup Qualifier.

Career statistics

''Footnotes'' :a. appearances in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

. ''Bognor Regis Town statistics unavailable''

Honours

Brighton & Hove Albion *

Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Individual * Brighton & Hove Albion Player of the Season: 2010–11

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abd, Adam 1984 births Living people Footballers from Brighton Egyptian men's footballers English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Bognor Regis Town F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Bury F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Whitehawk F.C. players Worthing F.C. players English Football League players Isthmian League players Egypt men's international footballers English people of Egyptian descent 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Egyptian sportsmen