Tewfik Abdullah

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Tewfik Abdullah
1920 Olympic Games
Personal information
Full name Tewfik Abdullah
Date of birth 23 June 1896 (1896-06-23)
Place of birth Cairo, Egypt
Date of death 1963
Position(s)
Inside Forward
Youth career
1911–1912 Zamalek
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1912–1920 Zamalek
1920–1922 Derby County 15 (1)
1922–1923 Cowdenbeath
1923–1924
Bridgend Town
 6 (1)
1924 Hartlepools United 11 (1)
1924–1926
Providence Clamdiggers
 8 (0)
1927 Fall River F.C. 1 (1)
1927 Hartford Americans
1928 New York Nationals
1928 Fall River F.C.
ca. 1928–1930 Al Ahly
1930–1932 Zamalek
ca. 1932–??
Montreal Carsteel
International career
1920 Egypt 2 (0)
Managerial career
1937–1945 Zamalek
1940–1944 Egypt
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Tewfik Abdullah (

Arabic: توفيق عبد الله, also Tawfik Abdallah and variations) (23 June 1896 – 1963) was an Egyptian football player and manager. He began his career with Zamalek, and played for Egypt in the 1920 Summer Olympics. He was the second Egyptian to play in the English League and the first in the First Division.[1] He was one of four Egyptians who played professional football in Britain before World War Il.[2][3]

After a decade with Zamalek, Abdullah moved to English League. In England he featured for

National Challenge Cup with the Fall River F.C. After returning to Egypt he won the Egypt Cup with Al Ahly before returning back to Zamalek, where he won with the team the 1932 Egypt Cup, and the Cairo League
in 1931–32 season. He finished his playing career in Canada. Later he was manager of Zamalek and the Egypt national football team.

Playing career

Beginnings in Egypt's Zamalek - Olympics 1920

نادي_الزمالك_1917
Zamalek squad in 1917
Équipe_d'Égypte_de_football_1920
Egypt at the 1920 Summer Olympics

Tewfik Abdullah initially started his career in the youth team of

Egyptian national team her participated at the 1920 Olympic Games in the Belgian city of Antwerp.[4] There Egypt was ousted 1-2 in the first round by Italy. After this Egypt defeated Yugoslavia in a "consolation match" with 4-2. He participated in both matches.[5]

United Kingdom

The Scottish

Fulham FC in the Second Division. Abdullah's goal against City should remain his only goal and only win in a dozen league matches for Derby County in the 1920/21-season which ended in relegation. He stayed on, but got little playing time in the Second Division. Abdullah's ability with the ball found praise, but he was said to lack speed.[6][7]

Tewfik Abdullah on the cover for Topical Times magazine, 1922

For the 1922/23 season, he joined the Scottish second division club

Cowdenbeath FC which should finish eleventh. This transfer was made on the recommendation of his Derby teammate Willie Paterson, whose father Alex Paterson was coaching the Scots. Abdullah soon broke his arm there, but otherwise played well and regularly. In a later review, Alex Paterson described him as one of the "smartest footballers" he ever encountered.[8] At the end of the season, it was initially said that he would go to America despite an offer to stay.[9] Eventually, he moved to Bridgend Town in Wales, which was to be 13th in the Western Division of the Southern Football League.[10]
He played there until late February or early March 1924.

At the beginning of March 1924 he returned to England and joined

Wrexham. After the game, it was reported that he had increased the impact of the Hartlepools attack significantly and that he had gained a lot of weight and strength since he left Derby County. He was considered a "god-send", but Hartlepools finished the season on the penultimate place. For Abdullah, who played a total of eleven times, one goal stood.[11][12][13][14]

American Soccer League

As a result of the expansion of the

American Soccer League
for the 1924/25 season from eight to twelve teams, the steady stream of British, especially Scottish, footballers to the United States increased. There, the players besides a place in the team, got a job, mostly in the factory of the team owner, which then earned them up to three times the three or four pounds that the British clubs usually paid per week.

Abdullah joined the

Providence Clamdiggers
in Rhode Island. Abdullah, soon to be given the new nickname "Happy", ended the season there with 15 goals in 34 games. In 1925/26 he only managed seven goals in ten games and then two goals in 18 games. In three years he had accumulated 62 appearances and 24 goals for the Clamdiggers.

Later in the 1926/27 season, he moved to the

US Open Cup, of 1927, albeit he was not on the pitch in the final. On 2 April 1927, he was also in a selection of the ASL, which was defeated 2-4 against the well-staffed national team of Uruguay
. A week later he was part of a 1–1 draw against Uruguay with the 'Marksmen'.

For the 1927/28 season, he switched to the newly founded Hartford Americans. The club withdrew early in the season and Abdullah only played eleven times for the Connecticut side. Until the end of the year, he then played eight games for the New York Nationals which were created at the beginning of the season by the controversial entrepreneur Charles Stoneham by transferring the Indiana Flooring franchise to the east coast metropolis. Still in 1928 followed a short comeback to the 'Marksmen' where in February 1928 he had two games in which he marked one goal.

Return to Egypt - career end in Canada

Once he returned to Egypt he joined Al Ahly SC of Cairo, winning the Sultan Hussein Cup of 1929 contributing one goal to the 2-0 victory against Scottish military side Dirhams in the final. In the following year he won the Egypt Cup with a 2–0 win in the final over Al Ittihad of Alexandria. After this he returned to Zamalek SC winning the 1932 Egypt Cup with a 2–1 victory over Al Ahly. He also won with Zamalek the Cairo League in the 1931–32 season. It is reported, that in 1932 he returned to North America, joining Montreal Carsteel in Canada, where he saw out his playing years. The club won the Coupe du Québec, the Cup of Quebec, in the years of 1932 to 1934, and he might have been involved in the winning of these trophies.

Management

Tewfik Abdullah in the late 1930s, he became the first known manager of Zamalek SC, and the most decorated manager in the history of the club with 9 trophies
Zamalek_SC_1940-41
Zamalek's manager Abdullah (first from right) with Zamalek in 1941

After this he attempted to establish himself as coach in North America. As he did not succeed, he returned to Egypt, and retired from professional football. After retirement, he worked as a coach, he managed Zamalek from 1937 to 1945. While he was Zamalek's manager, he headed the

Egyptian national team between 1940 and 1944. As Zamalek's manager, he won the Egypt Cup for four times in (1938, 1941, 1943, 1944), and four titles of the Cairo League in (1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45), and the King's Cup once in 1940–41.[15][16]

Honours

Player

Fall River F.C.

New York Nationals (ASL)

Al Ahly

Zamalek

Manager

Zamalek

References

  • "Tewfik Abdullah - Olympic Biography and Statistics". Sports Reference. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  • Dr.Tarek Ahmed Said: Egyptian Football Net, 1996–2019
  • Colin Jose: American Soccer League 1921-1931: The Golden Years of American Soccer, Scarecrow Press, Inc (Lanham, MD, USA), 1998,
    ISBN 0-8108-3429-4
  1. ^ University of Leicester, Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research- fact sheet number 4 (Black Footballers, section 3.4)
  2. Mohammed Latif, Glasgow Rangers 1935-36, Mustafa Mansour
    , GK, Queens Park (Glasgow) 1938-39
  3. ISBN 1-899468-67-6
  4. ^ "Tewfik Abdullah". Olympedia. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  5. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
    , 5 November 2015
  6. ^ Egyptian Inside right - Signs for Derby County, Daily Mail (London), 22 September 1920, p. 9.
  7. ^ Abdallah, Tewfik, (Statistics with Derby County), The Rams, 2007 (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
  8. ^ From Central League to First Division, Evening Telegraph (Dundee, Scotland), 21 August 1930, p. 9
  9. ^ Abdullah for America, Hull Daily Mail, 26 May 1923, p. 3.
  10. ^ Sporting Items, Nottingham Evening Post, 16 August 1923, p. 6
  11. ^ The Amateur League, Derby Daily Telegraph, 15 March 1924, p. 4
  12. ^ North and South: Abdallah Gets Going, Derby Daily Telegraph, 22 March 1924, p. 4
  13. ^ Sporting Tiems (sic), Nottingham Evening Post, 8 May 1924, p. 8
  14. Hartlepool United
    (per 31 July 2020)
  15. ^ فى الاهلى كدبة ابريل عرض مستمر || توفيق عبد الله || وفصل جديد من فصول تزوير التاريخ, zamalek.tv, 22. April 2016
  16. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
    , 21 August 2019
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