On this day, Mahmoud El Khatib wore the Al Ahly jersey for the first time and scored a goal against Plastics.
On October 15, 1972, Egyptian stadiums witnessed the debut of Mahmoud El Khatib with the first team of Al Ahly, marking the beginning of the career of one of the most prominent stars in Egyptian football history. He later became a legend of the Red Castle and the current president of the club, after achieving numerous accomplishments and titles with Al Ahly and the Egyptian national team.
El Khatib Begins His Adventure with Al Ahly Against Plastics
Al Ahly fans had to wait until the second half to see Mahmoud El Khatib in his official debut, as the late coach Mohamed Abdo Saleh El Wahsh decided to bring him on as a substitute for Adel El Gamal during the match against Plastics at Cairo Stadium in the 1972-1973 season.
Al Ahly started the match with a lineup that included Hazem Karam, Ahmed Maher, Hassan Hamdy, Samir Hassan, Hani Mostafa, Anwar Salama, Safwat Abdel Halim, Mahmoud Rushdi, Ibrahim Abdel Samad, Mahmoud Abdel Hai, and Adel El Gamal, while the match was officiated by Alexandrian referee Mohamed Rizk Shehata.
The Red team was leading 2-0 with goals from Anwar Salama and Mahmoud Abdel Hai before El Khatib made his first appearance in an Al Ahly shirt. It took him just 7 minutes to score his first official goal in the league, kicking off a remarkable scoring journey that would see him net 109 goals in the competition.
109 Goals in the League and 20 Titles with Al Ahly
Mahmoud El Khatib managed to place his name among Al Ahly's top scorers, having scored 109 goals in 199 matches in the Premier League, sharing the top scorer title with Hossam Hassan after being the club's leading scorer for nearly two decades.
He became the first player in Al Ahly's history to score 100 goals in the Premier League, achieving this milestone with a penalty against Saleh Mohamed, the goalkeeper of Krom, during the 1982-1983 season.
El Khatib played 266 matches during his football career, including 199 in the league, 18 in the Egypt Cup, 29 in the African Cup of Champions, and 20 in the African Cup Winners' Cup.
He joined Al Ahly at the age of 16 from Al Nasr for 1,000 Egyptian pounds and won 15 domestic titles with the team, including 10 Premier League titles and 5 Egypt Cups, in addition to 5 continental titles, which include two African Champions Cup titles and three African Cup Winners' Cup titles.
Furthermore, El Khatib topped Al Ahly's scoring list in African competitions with 37 goals and held the title of all-time top scorer in African club competitions from 1987 until 2012, before being surpassed by Mbaye Leye, a player from Congolese club Mazembe.
African Ballon d'Or and El Khatib's Achievements with the Egyptian National Team
Mahmoud El Khatib won the African Player of the Year award in 1983, receiving the Ballon d'Or presented by France Football, surpassing Ghanaian Opoku Nti, a player from Asante Kotoko, who led his team to victory over Al Ahly in the final of the African Cup of Champions that same year.
Despite Al Ahly losing the continental title, El Khatib won the award after collecting 98 votes compared to Opoku Nti's 89 votes, following his outstanding performance in the tournament, where he scored 6 goals in 8 matches with the Red team.
On the national team level, El Khatib won the Africa Cup of Nations title in 1986 and participated in two Olympic Games, namely Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984.
The current president of Al Ahly played 54 matches for the Egyptian national team, scoring 24 goals, placing him tenth on the list of the Pharaohs' all-time top scorers, and his name remains prominent among the icons of Egyptian football.
