With the World Cup in Russia just a few days away, and with Egypt feverish with anticipation
for their first finals in nearly thirty years (not to mention the speculation over Mohamed
Salah's fitness), a transfer was completed in the Egyptian Premier League with very little
fanfare.
Al Masry, a team from Port Said that finished third in Egypt's top league last season, announced
they had signed a promising young striker.
Mahmoud Wadi had just finished his first season in Jordanian football for Al Ahli as the league's
top scorer.
At 22, Wadi was young, tall and powerful.
In fact his nickname is The Tower.
He also seemed to know where the goal was.
But his signing was only part of a remarkable recent journey.
Wadi is a Palestinian international born and raised in the Gaza Strip, a tiny piece of
land next to the Mediterranean sea where nearly two million people live in abject conditions,
trapped because of a blockade by its neighbours Israel and Egypt.
Just over a year before his move to the Egypt Premier League, Wadi was trapped in Gaza,
training in between various armed conflicts and was repeatedly refused permission by the
Israeli authorities to leave the territory to follow his dreams.
A year ago it seemed like politics and war had ended his career.
**
Whilst much of the international community is yet to officially recognise a Palestinian
state, FIFA became arguably the most high profile international organisation to fully
recognise an entity called Palestine.
In 1998 Sepp Blatter flew into Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, with Michel Platini in
tow, to triumphantly announce that Palestine would become a member of FIFA.
It was, Blatter would later explain, a chance to foster peace in the region.
A Palestine national team was built largely from players that came from Gaza and the West
Bank although an advert was put in German newspaper Kicker looking for any players of
Palestinian descent who might come and play for the team.
But the politics of the real world would frequently impinge on the team.
For years there was no league as it was impossible to fulfil fixtures due to Israeli checkpoints.
Gaza is also separate from the West Bank making it impossible for players from the two territories
to meet.
International matches could not be played at home.
Instead, the Palestine team travelled to neutral venues like Doha although players from Gaza
would frequently be turned away at the border.
On more than one occasion they could barely scrape together enough players to make up
a full team.
But over the years Palestinian football has boomed in spite of its privations.
In the West Bank at least.
A professional league was started, paying wages comparable to nearby Israel and attracting
many Israeli Arab players to the West Bank.
But the game in Gaza, where many Palestinians will tell you the best players are from, is
struggling under the weight of wars, the blockade and the restrictive rule of Hamas, who have
been in charge since 2007 and promise perpetual war with Israel.
It is virtually impossible to enter or leave via the one crossing point in the north of
the Strip: Erez.
Since 2007, three wars have been fought between Israel and Gaza, costing almost 4,000 mostly
civilian lives.
Its infrastructure has been shattered, its stadiums destroyed, leaving Gaza isolated
and poverty-stricken.
An on-going border protest has seen more than 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli sniper
fire, and as many as 10,000 injured.
Hundreds of home made rockets continue to be fired indiscriminately by Hamas and its
allies into Israel.
Mahmoud Wadi grew up playing football in the dusty alleyways of Khan Younis, a city in
the south of Gaza.
His talent was spotted by the Palestinian Football Association but getting him out of
Gaza was a problem.
The first time he was invited into the national team squad, in 2014, coincided with Israel's
Operation Protective Edge Israel.
He was told to get ready and wait for the call.
“I had to train but I didn't care about the war,” said Wadi.
“I could see an Israeli jet shooting and I was training.
I was running on the sea wall, watching them attack buildings.
I was expecting death at any moment."
Wadi survived but his permit never came.
But, finally, he was spotted by Ahli al Khaleel in Hebron, in the West Bank, where he was
offered a contract paying $2,700 a month, a fortune in Gaza.
According to the Palestine Trade Center 68% of Gazans aged between 20 and 24 are unemployed.
The average daily wage in Gaza is barely $15, and falling.
Wadi was, at first, given permission to leave Gaza, and starred for his new team, especially
in the AFC Cup, Asia's equivalent of the Europa League where he scored five goals in six games.
Life was immeasurably better.
As a Gazan he wasn't allowed to travel freely between West Bank cities.
And whenever the team had to travel abroad for a game he was routinely operated from
the squad and held back for hours.
But he could begin to dream about fulfilling his dream, of one day playing for Real Madrid.
“You have electricity the whole day, life is open there,” said Wadi.
“Hebron is the window to the future.
If Real Madrid call you in Gaza, you have no chance.
But in the West Bank?”
After making such a strong start, Ahli Al Khaleel travelled to Gaza to play the winners
of the Gaza Cup.
It was a chance to go home and see his family and play in front of his people.
But it all went wrong.
After the game he was again separated from his team.
They crossed the border, but he remained in Gaza.
Every day he would walk to the Erez crossing to see if he could cross.
He couldn't.
No reason was ever given.
It could have been worse, Mahmoud Sarsak, another talented player Gaza who also signed
for a West Bank Premier League team, was arrested in 2009 and placed in administrative detention,
effectively held without charge, when he tried to cross to make his dream move.
Israel claimed either he or someone in his immediate family had links to the terrorist
group Islamic Jihad, something he denied.
Sarsak was in prison for three years.
He went on hunger strike and almost died.
He was only released after Sepp Blatter and several well-known footballers intervened.
Eventually, in 2017, Wadi signed on loan for Ittihad Khan Younis to keep fit, and scored
goals for fun, bullying the opposition defences, but it looked like his career might be over.
But then, after months of lobbying the Israeli authorities, he was given permission to leave
for the Jordanian club Al Ahli.
There he scored eight goals, became the league's top scorer, and came onto the radar of some
of Egypt's top clubs.
And then, in June, it was announced that he had signed for Al Masry and will play under
the tutelage of coach Hossam Hassan, one of Egypt's greatest ever strikers who played
at Italia 90.
This year Mahmoud Wadi's dream of playing in Europe for Madrid just got a step closer,
whilst Palestinian football continues to enjoy success.
Earlier this year Palestine overtook Israel for the first time on FIFA's men's rankings.
And they will appear at the 2019 Asian Cup, the equivalent of the European Championship,
in the UAE.
If he hits the ground running in Egypt, and makes it to Palestine's Asian Cup squad, you'll
likely be hearing more about Mahmoud Wadi.