ABU DHABI // Like his sporting heroes David Beckham, Michael Ballack and Michael Essien, Sherif Nagy's dreams of playing football in South Africa ended before they had even kicked off.
For the captain of The Spartans, an amateur football team who earned a trip to the World Cup after winning a six-a-side tournament in Abu Dhabi, a torn calf muscle on the eve of his departure for Johannesburg put paid to his hopes.
Mr Nagy, 31, an Egyptian furniture trader, who has lived in the capital for six years, was forced to watch from the sidelines while his teammates - English and Arab expatriates, as well as an Emirati - played their hearts out in the one-day, six-a-side tournament against 10 sides from nations including Brazil, Argentina and Germany.
"I was able to walk with a little help from the lads, but I actually didn't play," said Mr Nagy, the general manager of Nasco furniture traders in Abu Dhabi.
"I practised a little bit, but could only play for two minutes - just for fun. And the team picked up another injury along the way. We were cursed - we were literally cursed that trip."
As if that was not bad enough, many of his teammates also came down with the flu.
As a result, The Spartans failed to advance beyond the group stages of the tournament, which was held on July 1 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria.
But dogged by misfortune as they were, Mr Nagy and his friends were hardly going to let the greatest show on earth pass them by. Before their own fixtures, the team gathered on the terraces at the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg to take in Brazil's 3-0 hammering of Chile, where they were joined by Marcos Evangelista de Moraes, the former Brazilian captain better known as Cafu.
That was followed by Paraguay's defeat of the Japanese in a penalty shoot-out on June 29.
But the finale of their trip came seconds from the end of Ghana's fateful meeting with Uruguay, when the Uruguayan Luis Suarez's handball stopped a certain goal, denying Ghana a place in the semifinals. Ghana's cruel defeat on penalties was one of the tournament's defining moments.
"People were crying over there," said Mr Nagy.
The hospitality shown to the team as part of the six-a-side tournament also included a safari at the Pilansberg National Park game reserve.
Mr Nagy added that he and his teammates were able to spread awareness among their competitors about Abu Dhabi and the UAE.
"A lot of people didn't know Abu Dhabi, so it was great just to increase their awareness," he said.
"When you live in a city and nobody knows about it, you feel so left out. But by the end of trip, everybody knew about Abu Dhabi."
mchung@thenational.ae
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 2 (Vecino 65', Barella 83')
Verona 1 (Verre 19' pen)
Globalization and its Discontents Revisited
Joseph E. Stiglitz
W. W. Norton & Company
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
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Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
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How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
