For Elneny, though, the dream is to then lead his eponymous club to the very top and defy any critics – much like his earlier playing days.
“I remember one journalist was talking to me in Egypt and he asked me, last question, he said to me: ‘Mo, where you do you want to play?’,” Elneny said.
“I was playing for a club (Al Mokawloon) in the middle of the table in Egypt but I said to him ‘I want to play at the Nou Camp in Barcelona’.
“I swear to you, he just walked off and didn’t continue the interview with me, no thank you, no goodbye or anything, he just walked off.
“My friend said ‘look where you are. Look where you are in the middle of the table in Egypt, how are you going to get to one of the best teams in the world’?
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