Mostafa Kamel Taha Yossef El-Gamal (; 23 March 1910 – 7 October 1969) 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

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He was a prolific goal scorer, He played almost all of his career in Zamalek. Taha represented Egypt at 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 ...

and 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 ...

. He is the Zamalek's all-time goal scorer 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 ...

with 12 goals. He retired as captain of Zamalek in 1945.

Career

Club career

Taha started his youth career in

in 1925. He was 18 when played his first game for the first team in the 1928–29 season, he won with Zamalek in his first season the 1928–29

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. In Zamalek, Taha played in the prime of his career with Egyptian veteran players such as Mohamed Latif,

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 ...

, El-Sayed Abaza and Ismail Raafat. He scored his first goal in the

in the 1929–30 season. In 1931, Taha made a surprise move to arch rival

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 played with them for two seasons until 1933, then he moved back to Zamalek and played until the end of his career. Taha scored over 100 goals with Zamalek, he won with Zamalek seven Cairo League titles (1928–29, 1929–30, 1933–34, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45), five

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 ...

titles in (

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 ...

) and the King Fouad Cup twice in (1934, 1941). He was Zamalek's captain in the early 1940s, he was the one who lifted the 1944 Egypt Cup trophy, this cup's final was a historical match with Zamalek's highest victory over Al Ahly with a score of 6–0, which is the largest score in the history of the Egypt Cup final matches and in the history of the

. He was a prolific goal scorer, he is the second all-time top scorer of the Cairo derby with 15 goals and Zamalek's all-time top scorer of the derby with 12 goals. He changed his position and played as a defender in the last three seasons of his career. After winning the 1944–45 Cairo League's season, Taha retired from professional football in 1945.

International career

Taha played his first international game with the

Egypt national football team The Egypt national football team (), nicknamed Pharaohs (), represents Egypt in men's FIFA, international Association football, football, and is governed by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA), the governing body of football in Egypt. Egypt ...

in 1929. He was part of the team that played in the

, and played Egypt's game in the group stage. 1934-World-Cup-Egypt

Taha was also part of the team that played in that 1936 Olympics in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and was in the starting lineup. He played for his country until 1940, as there was no official tournaments 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 ...

Honours and achievements

;Zamalek *

: 1934–35, 1937–38, 1940–41, 1942–43, 1943–44 *

: 1928–29, 1929–30, 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 ...

: 1934, 1941 ;Al Ahly *

: 1930–31 *

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 ...

: 1931

References

External links

Mostafa Taha on Olympedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taha, Mostafa 1910 births 1969 deaths Egyptian men's footballers Egypt men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Zamalek SC players 1934 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Egypt 20th-century Egyptian sportsmen