WATANI International
5 September 2010
The young members of Watani##s staff surprised everyone when they decided to participate for the first time in the annual Ramadan football tournament held during Ramadan by the Egyptian University for Electronic Education.
The Watani team included Nader Shukry, Emad Khalil, Adel Mohamed-Mahdy, Saleh Samy, Emad Nassif, Magdy Malak, Milad Hanna, Ramy Nageh, Riyad Rifaat, Samy Samaan, Mina Nagy, Ishaq Aziz, Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, Mina Magdy, Bishoi Tharwat. They were coached by Mustafa Fouad.
The decision to take part in the tournament was taken rather late, in fact only one day before it started. However, since the tournament organisers welcomed Watani’s participation, the team took the plunge for the sake of being part of the game. They lost two matches and won one, but were highly applauded by jury and spectators alike for trying hard and for an exemplary sports spirit.
Watani’s first game was against the Rose al-Youssef magazine team, which won 4 – 1. The second game was against Al-Youm al-Sabei and took place on the following day, which was a Friday, the day Watani goes to press. The Watani team thus played minus some of its strong members, and lost 6 – 1.
Having lost two games, Watani was placed among the lower-ranking teams in the tournament, but its team insisted on playing their last match against the Ain-Shams University team. Surprisingly, Watani won 6 – 2. The tournament ended by the al-Wafd team winning against the Rose al-Youssef team 8 —1.
Watani editor-in-chief Youssef Sidhom strongly supported the idea of participation. “The matter goes beyond winning,” he said. “It is all about active participation and interaction.”
The Watani team has vowed to embark on serious training and preparation for other upcoming tournaments.