Egypt's Essam El-Hadary becomes oldest player in AFCON history
Twenty years after debuting for Egypt, Essam El-Hadary is continuing to pull on the Pharaohs' gloves.
On Tuesday, in the first half of Egypt's scoreless draw against Mali at the Africa Cup of Nations, El-Hadary became the oldest player to take the pitch in the history of the tournament, replacing Ahmed El-Shenawy two days after his 44th birthday and breaking the record set by Hossam Hassam in 2006.
👏 History! At the age of 44 years + 2 days, 🇪🇬Egypt's Essam El-Hadary becomes the oldest player in CAF Africa Cup of Nations history pic.twitter.com/hfuuD0HTAI
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) January 17, 2017
The historic appearance didn't come as many expected, however. Even though Ahmed Nagy, Egypt's goalkeeping coach, admitted Monday that the Pharaohs hadn't chosen their first-choice 'keeper, El-Hadary was expected to start. But El-Shenawy was ultimately selected over the veteran, who was named to the bench and only entered the match when his compatriot limped off the pitch in tears.
Ahead of the match, El-Hadary, who represented Egypt when the Pharaohs conquered Africa in 2006, 2008, and 2010, insisted he feels younger than ever, saying: "I don't care about my age; I train like I am 20 years old."
El-Hadary's international debut came in 1996, before Ramadan Sobhi, Egypt's youngest player at the Africa Cup of Nations, had even been born. Should the shot-stopper play at the tournament in 2019, he will equal Rigobert Song's record of appearing in eight editions of the competition.