Evrain Uyanik, the new coach of the Egyptian amputee football team, started training in Turkey 15 years ago. He won the Premier League title for amputee football and the second division title with Izmir Club, and third place finishes in the league three times.

He collected as a coach the bronze medal at the Turkish Cup. He also won two silver medals in the league.

Uyanik, 41, started his career as a player in Auntay Club. After two years he shifted to Çakmak Club. As a player, he won the league title twice with Auntay.

Turkey has been a world champion in amputee football for years.

As to why he decided to come to Egypt to train the team, Uyanik said that after he had worked for a number of years as a coaching assistant for the Turkish national team, “I decided that I need to train internationally and professionally. I am sure that the Egyptian national team is strong as I heard a lot from Mahmoud Abdel-Azim (one of the pioneering amputee players in Egypt, is Egypt’s team captain, and plays professionally in Turkey).

“So I was so excited to come to Cairo and train the team. I knew that the Egyptian team has its own plans and are very good at football in addition to preparing to compete in the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time. I thought this is the right time for me to take over and work with the team.

“Abdel-Azim also convinced me that Egypt needs to train a number of coaches in amputee football to be able to take over as coaches in the national clubs and to start having a national league for the game.”

Uyanik added that he goes out every Friday to see the players and juniors who are training at Samir and Ali Academy to choose the best players for the national amputee team.

He thinks that Egyptian players are talented but need a lot of training to be able to connect their physical abilities with tactical plans drawn up for them. “They have to work their minds along with their physical ability.

“I am targeting a medal at the African Championship. It does not matter what the colour of the medal is as long as we are still preparing a well-built national team.”

As to the team’s participation in the upcoming International Poland Championship for amputee football, “I am preparing the national team well for this event to reach its utmost as it is a very important championship where we will play with world champions like Turkey, the US, Poland, and the UK.”

Al-Ahram Weekly also met Abdel-Azim, the first professional Egyptian amputee footballer in Turkey. Abdel-Azim, 31, has a story that goes back when he was six. After leaving his nursery he was run over by a truck twice and lost one of his legs and was bedridden in hospital for years undergoing a number of surgeries until he was able to lead a normal life.

At the age of 12, and as a very active and enthusiastic pre-teen, Abdel-Azim wanted to play football but was always rejected due to his physical disability. He used to play with his neighbours on the street as he loved football so much and was a fan of Egypt’s famed Ahly Club. “I was standing watching one of the matches in a club in Madinet Al-Salam, my neighbourhood, so I approached the coach and asked if I could join the match, and he agreed. I couldn’t believe myself and I played very well as I had very good control on my crutches since I have been using them for years.

“By then, I started playing football. The turning point in my life was in 2018 when Egypt qualified for the World Cup in Russia. I kept celebrating and jumping up and down and performing acrobatic stunts on my crutches. A video of me went viral on social media and attracted millions from all around the world.

“By luck, I was watching a final European League championship in amputee football between England and Turkey and I discovered that there is a sport that suits me. I started phoning all my friends who are like me from across Egypt’s governorates and we started forming a team. I was supervised by Khaled Hafiz, our guardian and who believed in our abilities. He helped me and my friends in attaining our goal. We kept knocking on the doors of the Egyptian Ministry for Youth and Sports and the Egyptian Paralympic Committee to convince them about the value of our sport which is not under the umbrella of the International Paralympic Committee. We also had businessman Mohamed Adel Hosni and Sarah Samir who believed in our dream and supported us unlimitedly. We were able to form a committee at the EPC headed by Hosni.” Abdel-Hafiz was chosen to represent Egypt in the African Amputee Federation. “Pyramids was the first Egyptian club to have an amputee team, followed by Zamalek. We now have eight clubs.”

Meanwhile, Abdel-Azim received an offer from Turkey to play in Borsa Sport in 2018. “Then I went to Izmir Club, but I was always spending my vacations in Egypt to complete my dream of having an Egyptian national team for amputee football that can compete internationally.

“We also held a number of events in universities and other places to make people more aware about us. We also participated in African amputee football in Tanzania with the participation of 16 countries in 2021. We came in seventh place in the first international tournament for us. This made people believe in us and in our capabilities.” Abdel-Azim will also play with his Turkish team in the European amputee football league as the first Egyptian to do so.

“The team consists of six players who are amputees or have a shorter leg, and a goalkeeper who has an amputee arm,” Mohamed Maged, the Egyptian national team’s administrator, said.

“We play two halves, each 25 minutes long and a 10-minute break between the two halves. Substitutions are made throughout the match, like handball. Crutches are not allowed to touch the ball.”

Maged said the team is in a closed camp in Cairo Stadium to prepare for the Poland International Championship and to give the newly appointed coach the chance to get to know all the national team’s players and choose his final team. Maged added that through the help of the Egyptian Paralympic Committee headed by Hossameddin Mustafa and Emad Ramadan, the committee’s treasurer, Egypt’s amputee football team is making its dream come true.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly