Yasser Ayoub, the renowned football critic wrote a piece praising Omar Elbanouby’s journalistic prowess following an article in which Omar sheds light on the historic achievement made by Hossam Hassen during his time in the UEFA Cup, year 1991, scoring 4 goals in a single game against the Scottish team “Celtic”.

The following is the text of the article as published by “almasry alyoum” on Thursday, 24th of October 2019:

In the twenty second of October of the year 1991, Hossam Hassan, one of Egypt’s greatest football stars played his first game in the European League for The Swiss team “Neuchâtel Xamax” facing the Scottish “Celtic”. At the tenth minute of the first half he scored the opening goal of that game and then another in ten more minutes and a third and finally a fourth goal, all in his first game. The match ended with “Neuchâtel Xamax” winning over their opponent with a score of five goals to one.

Omar Elbanouby, a young, talented and ambitious Egyptian journalist was surprised to discover that the memory of that match is still fresh in the minds of the European football media sphere. The reason for that match’s significance being that it was one of the few ones played in the European League that included four goals scored by the same player. Only a handful of players achieved that feat, like Ibrahimović, Messi, Shevchenko and Lewandowski. Hossam Hassen is the first professional football player of Arabian origin to achieve that feat and no other Arabian player has managed to replicate it to our present day. Omar was also surprised to discover that Roy Hodgson, the coach for “Neuchâtel Xamax”at that time, remembers that match and Hossam Hassan himself very fondly. Omar decided to seek out Hodgson to ask him personally about his recollection of that match and of Hossam. Omar succeeded in his endeavor to contact Hodgson who’s currently the coach of “Crystal Palace” and previously coached major teams like “Liverpool”.

Hodgson spoke very fondly of Hossam and said that Hossam was very easy to work with due to his sincere love for football as a player back then and as a coach now. He considered Hossam to be one of the finest attackers he has had the pleasure of coaching throughout his long career in football. Hodgson also spoke of Ibrahim Hassan and his famous goal that won the day between “Neuchâtel”and “Real Madrid”. Omar also spoke with Derek Whyte, the defender for “Celtic” in that match where Hossam scored his four goals. Naturally, Omar proceeded to speak with Hossam himself about his memories of that time and the match. He also summarized two books related to “Celtic”and both those books mention the match and praise Hossam’s skill.

Hossam naturally deserves all this praise for he is one of the finest football players in Egypt, but Omar also deserves thanks and appreciation for all the effort he exerted and the love he has for a profession that very few care for anymore.