Mohamed Latif (; 23 October 1909 – 17 March 1990) was an Egyptian

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 ...

manager, pundit, referee and executive. He was a former professional footballer. He played for the clubs El-Zamalek of Egypt and

Rangers F.C. Rangers Football Club is a professional football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football. The club is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers, though this has never been i ...

of Scotland, as well as for the Egypt national team.

Early life

He was born on October 23, 1909 in

Beni Suef Governorate Beni Suef ( ') is one of the governorates of Egypt. It is situated in the center of the country and is located in northern Upper Egypt. Overview The governorate's capital is the city of Beni Suef, located about 120 km south of Cairo on the ...

, to a

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

family. He joined the Khedivial School and became the team's captain and right winger. He won the Schools Cup with his school in 1920. His first match with the Khedivial School against the Saidiya School, he was chosen to play in the school's first team against Mokhtar El Tetsh and Abdel Rahman Fawzy. He was chosen by

Hussein Hegazi Hussein Hegazi (; 14 September 1889 – 8 October 1961) was an Egyptian international footballer. He is considered the father of Egyptian football. Hegazi played in England at the prime of his career. He spent most of his professional career in ...

to join

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 ...

in 1926.

Playing career

Club career

Latif started his professional career in

in 1926, he was the main Zamalek's forward for nine seasons. After a brief spell in

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in 1935, he returned to Zamalek in the 1936–37 and played until his retirement in 1945. Latif won with Zamalek six 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 ...

( 1931–32, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1940–41, 1942–43, 1943–44). He also won with his team 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 ...

for eight seasons (1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45), and two titles of the King Fouad Cup (1933–34, 1940–41). Latif scored six goals in 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 ...

, he was Zamalek's captain in the early 1940s. After the World Cup, Latif went to

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, as did goalkeeper

Mustafa Mansour Mustafa Kamel Mansour (; 2 August 1914 – 24 July 2002) was an Egyptian footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Egypt at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. He is also notable for being one of the first non-British or Irish players to play in the Scott ...

, possibly at the suggestion of Egypt's national coach, Scotsman James McRea. He played his only

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 k ...

match for Rangers in the 1935–36 season, against Hibs.

International career

Latif helped the Egypt national team qualify for the

1934 World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the 2nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in whi ...

, scoring three goals against the Mandatory Palestine football team during the qualification rounds. He also played at the finals tournament with Egypt in the group stage. 1934-World-Cup-Egypt

In 1936, he was part of the Egyptian team that played in the Olympic tournament in Berlin. He played for Egypt for 10 years. Due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was unlucky as all sports activities were cancelled.

Post retirement career

After retirement from football, he worked as a

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

in the 1940s until he earned the international badge and officiated many international matches. Latif also held several managerial roles in the

Egyptian Football Association The Egyptian Football Association () is the governing body of association football in Egypt. A member of FIFA since 1923 and a founding member of the CAF, the EFA has jurisdiction over the Egyptian football league system and is responsible for ...

during the 1950s. He also worked as

's coach in the early 1960s. He won the 1962 Egypt Cup title with Zamalek as the head coach. He was the first to introduce

football commentary In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

on television and was the General Head of sports programs in the

Egyptian Television Television in Egypt is mainly received through free satellite, while analog terrestrial represents 41% of total viewers. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said the average time an Egyptian spends watching television a day i ...

for 16 years. He has broadcast

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

matches since 1962. Hanafy_Bastan_1957

His fame increased when, in 1948, he moved into the field of commentating on matches in radio, and he remained with the

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

until his death on 17 March 1990. He was called the Sheikh of Commentators. Mohamed Latif was distinguished by his own distinctive style in commenting on football matches, and his commentary was of great importance, especially in the

matches. He has reached such an extent of fame that he was hosted in

Egyptian films The Egyptian film industry is today based mainly in Cairo, which is sometimes referred to as Hollywood on the Nile, Hollywood of the Middle East or Hollywood of the East, despite having its beginnings in the city of Alexandria in the early 20t ...

as a sports commentator on football matches. Perhaps among the most prominent of these films is the film ''Stranger in My House'' starring

Soad Hosny Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny (, ; 26 January 1943 – 21 June 2001) was an Egyptian actress. She was known as the "Cinderella of the Screen" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She is generally regarded a ...

and Nour El Sherif, and the film ''

In Summer We Must Love In Summer We Must Love (Egyptian Arabic: في الصيف لازم نحب translit: ''Fi Saif Lazem Nihib'' or ''Fil Seef Lazem Neheb'') is 1974 Egyptian comedy film directed by Mohamed Abdel Aziz. It stars Salah Zulfikar as Dr. Nabil, the psychiat ...

'' starring

Salah Zulfikar Salah El-Din Ahmed Mourad Zulfikar (, ; 18 January 1926 – 22 December 1993) was an Egyptian actor and film producer. He started his career as a Egyptian National Police, police officer, before becoming an actor in 1956. He is regarded as one o ...

and

Samir Ghanem Samir Yousef Ghanem (; 15 January 1937 – 20 May 2021) was an Egyptian comedian, singer, and entertainer. Early life and education Ghanem was born in al-ʿAtawlah, Asyut Governorate. After graduating from high school, he joined the Police Aca ...

Honours

Player

Zamalek *

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

1941 The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, wa ...

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 � ...

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

: 1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45 *

King's Cup King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King's Cup (Bahrain), the premier national knockout football tournament * King's ...

: 1933–34, 1940–41 Egypt *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

: fourth place

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris B ...

Manager

Zamalek *

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

References

External links

* 1909 births 1990 deaths Egyptian men's footballers Egypt men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Egypt Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Rangers F.C. players Zamalek SC players 1934 FIFA World Cup players Egyptian expatriate men's footballers Zamalek SC managers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Scottish Football League players Men's association football forwards Egyptian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Egyptian football managers Sports commentators 20th-century Egyptian sportsmen {{Egypt-footy-forward-stub