The idea was that Mohamed Elneny should become at one with the ball.
It came from his father, who was a youth team coach at Baladeyet
Al-Mahalla in Egypt, and it was put into practice when Elneny was very
young.
“I remember that my father demanded that I went to bed with the
ball,” Elneny says. “He said: ‘You have to connect with the ball.’ He
started coaching me when I was three years old. His biggest wish was
that I became a professional footballer.”
The subliminal approach was a novel touch but Elneny has fired the
journey that has taken him through the ranks of Egyptian football to
Basel in Switzerland and now Arsenal with a remarkable single-mindedness.
The north London club’s new £7.4m signing, confirmed by Arsène Wenger after Wednesday night’s draw at Liverpool,
had little time for school and he would meet up with friends to have
kickarounds that he never wanted to end. “As a kid, I often played for
10 hours on the street,” Elneny says. “I think that’s when I learned to
run and run without a break.”
Elneny, 23, has the lung capacity of a long-distance athlete. In last
season’s Champions League, up until the last 16, which was when Basel were eliminated by Porto,
no other player had covered more ground and it has been the same story
in this season’s Europa League, in which the Egypt international has
helped what is now his former club reach the last 32.
Arsenal are acquiring something they badly need: another body in
central midfield to ease their injury-stretched ranks – and this one
comes with durability stamped all over it.
They are also acquiring a mind that has become attuned to the nuances
of the defensive midfield role and, more recently, has added more
forward-thinking accouterments.
In the first half of the season, Elneny
scored five goals for Basel in all competitions; across his previous two and a half seasons at the club, he had a total of four.
Elneny went to Basel in January 2013 from El Mokawloon in Egypt,
initially for trial.
“I had one overriding feeling: fear,”
he has said – but, having impressed, he earned a six-month loan deal. He
was quiet and shy, and everyone in Basel at the time remembers him as
living in the shadow of his great friend Mohamed Salah.
Salah, who had joined Basel from El Mokawloon in the summer of 2012,
was outgoing and confident, always talking and joking. Elneny spoke only
in Arabic and Salah acted both as his translator and big brother-style
chaperone.
Elneny started to speak more on the pitch, too, and he became more of
a presence. At first, he had been a no-risk kind of player, routinely
looking square or backwards from his position as the more defensive
midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation. As the first receiver of the ball
from the defense, however, he began to demonstrate his ability to
provide a platform for the team to play with simple and urgent passes.
Elneny is no muscular enforcer, rather an intelligent reader of the
game, who knows when to hold and when to intercept. He is the ultimate
team player, a manager’s dream because of his work-rate and lack of ego,
and he has grown, particularly this season, in which he has been
Basel’s best player.
The club have replaced him with Alexander Fransson, a 21-year-old
Swede from IFK Norrkoping, and the fee Basel have received from Arsenal
is substantial for them. Yet there is no escaping the feeling that they
are gutted to lose him.
Read Also: FC Basel signs Mohamed Elneny replacement
Elneny draws strength from his family and his faith. Married with a
young son and a baby on the way, he is a devout Muslim, who prays five
times a day. He takes his prayer mat on away trips and he observes
Ramadan strictly.
“Allah decided that I was going to be a footballer and that I was going to sign for Basel,” Elneny said, in an interview with Aargauer Zeitung last year.
“When it comes to making decisions, I listen to him. If there is at
some point an offer from another club and Allah tells me not to go, I
won’t go. And the same goes for the other way around.”
Elneny is not the type to attract unwanted publicity away from the
field or be distracted by the bright lights of the city. In Basel he
lived in the tall residential tower that is part of the club’s St
Jakob-Park stadium complex; his commute to work was via lift and
escalator. For an illustration of his cold-eyed focus, consider the
episode at the start of the 2013-14 season, when Basel were drawn to
play Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League third qualifying round.
There was huge pressure in Egypt on Elneny and Salah not to play and
Salah sparked a political stir when he said he would not travel with the
squad to Israel. He would change his mind but he refused to shake hands
with the Maccabi players before both ties. Elneny simply put his head
down and got on with the job of being a footballer. He went through with
the pre-match handshakes.
As Elneny prepares for the latest phase of his career, there is the
inevitable concern about his lack of Premier League experience. He has
fared well in European ties for Basel against Liverpool, Chelsea and
Tottenham Hotspur.
Those against Liverpool in the Champions League last season were the
highlight. Elneny starred at Anfield in the final group fixture, when Basel earned the draw they needed to qualify at Liverpool’s expense for the last 16 but the earlier tie at St Jakob-Park was as emotional for him.
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Elneny with his son |
It was the night that his father made a first trip over from Egypt to
watch him and, after the famous 1-0 win, he was pictured hugging his
son, with tears in his eyes. Elneny had another dream, which was to
score with him in attendance. Two months ago, when his father came for a
game in Basel for only the second time, Elneny scored the equaliser
against Fiorentina in the Europa League.
The bond between father and son runs deep. They are ready to share further memorable moments.
Watch Mohamed Elneny Goals,Skills and assists
