Paralympic football dreams

Egypt's football player Amr Wagdy  Cairo - Omar El Banouby Star player of Egypt's national football team for the deaf Amr Wagdy  has said that winning the World Cup in Turkey this July was not an easy task. Wagdy said in an interview to Arabstoday that the Egyptian team did not receive a lot of attention after it won the Cup in Ankara, which greatly saddened the players and coaching staff. "Our grief doubled because of the cold reception we received in Cairo airport without a single official to receive us," he said. Of his World Cup memories, Wagdy said he would never forget his goal in the match with Germany which ended with the victory of the Pharaohs (2-1), pointing out that this made the Egyptian national team qualify for the semi-finals, where they drew 1-1 with Ukraine. The match went into penalties, after which the "Sons of the Nile" were thrust into the finals with Turkey. Wagdy said the players and coaching staff were looking forward to even greater achievements in the London Paralympics to be held this year, "to write a new history for this brilliant generation of players". The player said that the Egyptian team needed the support of the public and authorities, having already charting major successes in international matches. Wagdy has played defence, midfield, and forwards, and scored more than one key goal for Egypt in the World Cup qualifiers.