Truman Capote once said that failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor and anyone who had achieved success after a longtime failure will certainly agree. Failure is a harsh necessity that helps us learn from our mistakes to grow. Of the many people who can vouch for these words, Ramadan Sobhi is at the top of the list.
Born in 1997, Ramadan Sobhi was raised in Cairo to a typical Egyptian family, wherein a love of football was instilled in him since a very young age.
That love of football was so ingrained into Ramadan that he’d tried out for the renowned Ahly SC academy and got accepted by a board impressed with his raw talent. Skill burgeoning, Ramadan soared through the youth ranks until he’d proved himself so thoroughly the club had no choice but to simply put him on the first team’s starting lineup. All at 16 years of age.
After an impressive debut in the 2013-14 Egyptian League match against Ghazl El-Mahalla, Ramadan began proving himself through a swirl of skill and speed. Soon enough his prowess even attracted attention from international sides, like Atlético Madrid. Not that Ramadan let that attention sway him just yet. On the contrary, he focused his attention on his game and established himself with Ahly’s first team, helping the club win the league title in its 2013-14 and 2015-16 campaigns.
European attention didn’t just end with Atlético’s, though. Soon enough others, like Arsenal, RB Leipzig, Roma, and Sampdoria, kept their sights on Ramadan as well and he had to take them into consideration. However when Ramadan did end up choosing a foreign club, his choice was doubted.
In the summer of 2016, after becoming engaged to Habiba Ekramy, Ramadan signed to England’s Stoke City for a fee of 5 million pounds. And here is where the string of failures begins.
To say that Ramadan Sobhi failed to establish himself at Stoke City would be an understatement; he’d simply gotten zero chances before a foreseeable relegation came to sink the club under. After which, Ramadan joined another struggling side in Huddersfield and still couldn’t make the cut.
After impressing as a teenager with potential to become Egypt’s next Football Hero, Ramadan was on the path to become a cautionary tale. Instead of becoming another Mohamed Salah, Sobhi almost turned into a Amr Zaki. Keyword: almost.
Ramadan returned to Ahly in January 2019 and quickly started turning things around for himself. He proved himself again and regained the quality that destined him for stardom. He then extended his loan, dead-set on being the best version of himself he could be.
In November of 2019, Ramadan made that a reality. After a humiliating AFCON 2019 exit for Egypt’s first team, not many held hope for the U-23s in their tournament.
But Ramadan held his head up high and captained the team to a ticket to Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and championship title—Egypt U-23’s first title—even scoring the winning goal and receiving the best player of the tournament award.
