In his first appearance at the 2026 World Cup, Egyptian Hamza Abdel-Karim made history. The 18-year-old Barcelona B team player became Egypt’s youngest ever World Cup player, subbing in for Mohamed Salah late in the second half against Belgium.
Abdel-Karim has attracted football communities all over the world even before getting the nod in Monday’s 1-1 result. If given more playing time, he is expected to shine and create waves in the world’s most prestigious sports event, the World Cup.
International media have been following the young prodigy as he continues to make history for himself, his team and country.
Some foreign journalists believe that, although Abdel-Karim may be just 18, he is already making a name for himself in the global game and is out to make a splash at the 2026 World Cup where he is amongst the five youngest participants and regarded by many as one of the hottest prospects.
Considered a wild card, his exploits in a Barcelona shirt have convinced the powers that be at the Catalan club to exercise the option to buy him from Egyptian giants Ahly when his loan concludes at the end of this month.
On the international stage, the towering target man earned plaudits aplenty at the FIFA U-17 World Cup staged on Qatari soil in November last year, when his goals helped propel the young Pharaohs into the last 32. Now, a mere seven months on, he is set to strut his stuff on the greatest stage of all.
Having featured for the Egyptian heavyweights in domestic cup competitions and the CAF Champions League, the Cairo-born boy wonder checked in at Barça’s academy this past February. He joined up with Los Azulgranas’ U-19 team and played an instrumental role in the run-in as they edged city foes Espanyol to the league title, weighing in with an impressive five goals in seven outings.
The then uncapped teenager’s dazzling displays at club level were enough to convince Egypt’s coach Hossam Hassan to include him in his 26-man squad for the North American showpiece.
The rising star hit the ground running for Barça’s Juvenil A side, opening his account with a headed effort on his debut: a 2-2 stalemate at Huesca in early March.
The Aragonese outfit’s goalkeeper, Jordi Saucedo, spoke to FIFA about the excitement in the home side’s camp in the build-up to the contest as they set about devising a plan to shackle the headline-hogging hitman.
He said: “The fact that he’s from another country and continent, as well as his being billed as a future star, really caught the imagination in our dressing room, and we were keen to see what he was all about.”
In the week leading up to the encounter, Saucedo spent more than the odd hour scrolling social media in search of footage of the fearsome forward. “What with it being his debut, I recall him looking a little lost in the opening exchanges, but it wasn’t long before his ability shone through,” he recalled. “He brings something a little different to the table for Barça because he’s such a threat in the air and is so good with his back to goal.
“He’s your typical old-fashioned centre-forward whose game is all about holding the ball up, being in the box and getting efforts in on goal.”
Saucedo cited the battering ram’s standout strengths as his ability in the air and his physical prowess. “He’d not long arrived in Spain and yet he was the most powerful player on the pitch.”
After having kept goal for a Barcelona youth side featuring Spanish starlets Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal, Abdel-Karim is not the only teenage sensation that the Huesca goalkeeper will be keeping an eye on at the global bonanza.
“Even back then, Cubarsi was a true leader and an assured presence, and Lamine was, in many ways, every inch the player he is now, with his electric pace, trickery and magical ability. He loved nothing more than entertaining folk with his dance moves and vibe. The pair of them are improving by the day,” the shot-stopper enthused before commenting that he will forever hold the somewhat unenviable claim to fame of being the first keeper in Spanish football to have picked an Abdel-Karim strike out of the net.
The Egyptian hotshot’s maiden hat-trick for his loan club came in the season curtain-closer at the start of last month. He plundered a headed treble in barely 15 first-half minutes as Pol Planas’ prodigies put Montecarlo to the sword in a 9-0 demolition job to clinch the league crown.
“In the week before the match, we warned the players about what a threat he is in the air, his ability to finish first-time and his sheer power. We tried to hammer home that we’d have to cut off the supply line to him in the box. Despite us having talked about it, worked on it and watched no end of clips, he was simply unplayable. He was just too hot to handle. He got on the end of absolutely everything,” noted Nestor Paricio, the man in charge of Los Blaugranas’ beleaguered victims.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 June, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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