Thabet El-Batal (16 September 1953 – 14 February 2005) 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 ...

international

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He played club football in his homeland (El Hawamdia). Then he went to Al Ahly between 1972 and 1991. He is considered to be one the greatest goalkeepers in

africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. His name "El-Batal" is the name of his family

Career

The career of Thabet El-Batal evolved from the team in his neighborhood, Al Hawmdia. He then made the acquaintance of Hawamdeh ( Abdo El-Bakal) who convinced him at age 19 to sign 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 ...

in 1972. He joined the club in Cairo during the 1972/1973 season and played some friendly matches with a match against Ittihad, where he stopped a penalty kick, to let Al Ahly win the match 1–0. El-Batal became the Al Ahly guard, formally beginning with the 1974/1975 season and succeeded in winning his championship year for the first time after successive victories and titles, both continental and Egyptian. He was one of the major players in the emergence of the club in Africa. He spent a total of 17 seasons at the club and retired at the end of the 1990/1991 season, after the match against Aswan in the Egypt Cup final, where they won 1–0. Internationally, he made his first appearance as a team to Egypt in 1974 and spent 16 years. He won the African Nations Cup in 1986 and participated in the Olympic Games. He was a member of the Egypt squad which participated in the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

.1990 FIFA World Cup: Egypt Squad

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

. Retrieved 12 February 2010. In 2004, he then became the technical director of

. He succeeded by his office in achieving many of the championships, 5 of them in successive league championships, the Egypt Cup once and twice the championship of the Arab Clubs Champions and Super Cup twice. Thabet El-Batal died in February 2005, after a long battle with cancer.

Honours

Club

;Al Ahly *

Egyptian Premier League The Egyptian Premier League (), also known as the Nile League () for sponsorship reasons, after the addition of title sponsor Nile Developments, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the highest level of the Egyptian football ...

: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988-1989 *

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 ...

: 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1991 *

African Cup of Champions Clubs The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual club football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) a ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

African Cup Winners' Cup The African Cup Winners' Cup was a football competition that started in 1975 and merged with the CAF Cup in 2004 to form the CAF Confederation Cup. It was a competition between the winning clubs of domestic cups in CAF-affiliated nations and w ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

Afro-Asian Cup The Afro-Asian Club Championship, sometimes referred to as the Afro-Asian Cup, was a football competition endorsed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Asian Football Confederation (AFC), contested between the winners of the Africa ...

: 1988

International

;Egypt *

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batal, Thabet 1953 births 2005 deaths 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1974 African Cup of Nations players 1984 African Cup of Nations players 1986 African Cup of Nations players 1990 African Cup of Nations players Egyptian men's footballers Al Ahly SC players Egypt men's international footballers Egyptian Premier League players Competitors at the 1979 Mediterranean Games Africa Cup of Nations–winning players Men's association football goalkeepers Footballers from Cairo Deaths from cancer in Egypt Mediterranean Games competitors for Egypt CAF Champions League–winning players 20th-century Egyptian sportsmen