Egyptian Premier League January spending hits new high
Ahly and Zamalek have raised the bar on transfers after they collectively spent around EGP 100 million (nearly $6 million) during the January transfer window.
While the record for local transfers between Egyptian clubs stood at EGP15 million paid by Zamalek to lure Congolese striker Kabongo Kasongo from Ittihad of Alexandria last summer, Ahly have reportedly paid more than the double this amount to sign Salah Mohsen from Enppi in January.
No fee has been officially disclosed, but media reports suggest the amount is somewhere between EGP 33 and 38 million.
“We don’t want to disclose at this time the big amount in the deal in line with Ahly’s wishes, but it will be revealed sooner or later,” Enppi’s football director Abdel-Nasser Mohamed told a radio programme.
The record-breaking move of the 19-year-old attacker created huge buzz in the Egyptian media.
“It is totally exaggerated and I don’t think there is any player worth that much in the Egyptian League. We are considering asking the clubs to present us their budgets ahead of the season so we can put a ceiling on their spending to avoid having them struggle to pay their dues, whether to other clubs or players,” Egyptian FA board member Magdi Abdel-Ghani said.
Ahly have announced that chairman of the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia, Turki Al-Sheikh, who was named last year honorary president of the club, has fully funded the transfer in order to ease concerns over their budget.
“I think the market was quiet this January except for one deal. We didn’t want to race Zamalek in every transfer and we even dropped some players to avoid the hike,” Ahly’s marketing director and the board’s spokesman Adli Al-Qii said.
Zamalek matched their previous record twice in January, as they signed Assiouty Sport playmaker Mohamed Antar and Smouha midfielder Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz for EGP 15 million each.
Both players were also on Ahly’s radar, who pulled out of the race following a EGP 20 million price tag, paving the way for the Whites to get a better deal.
Port Said-based club Masry contributed to the January big-money moves after signing Islam Issa from Al-Nasr for a club record fee of EGP 10 million, and Burkinabe striker Issouf Ouattara from Wadi Degla for EGP 5 million.
Outside these big deals, the rest of the transfers in a quite agitated window remained below the bar of EGP 5 million. But with more money than ever before flowing into the Ahly and Zamalek due to foreign selling (Ahly have announced $2.5 million revenues from winter transfers to Saudi Arabia) no lull is expected next summer.
