Mustafa Mansour

Who was Mustafa Mansour?

Mustafa Kamel Mansour was an Egyptian footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Egypt at the 1934 FIFA World Cup. He is also notable for being one of the first non-British or Irish players to play in the Scottish leagues.

Mansour played for Cairo club Al-Ahly in his native land, where his performances earned him a selection for the 1934 World Cup in Italy. He played in Egypt's only game at the tournament, a 4–2 defeat to Hungary in the first round in Naples.

Mansour also played for Egypt at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

Egypt's coach at the World Cup had been a Scotsman, James McRea, and he may have influenced Mansour's decision to move to Scotland in 1936 to attend Jordanhill College. While studying in Glasgow, Mansour appeared for the famous amateur side Queens Park, becoming their regular goalkeeper upon the retirement of Desmond White during the 1938-39 season.

Mansour returned to Egypt when the Second World War broke out, where he would later manage former club Al-Ahly, as well as become a government minister.

He died in July 2002, a month before what would have been his 88th birthday. Only weeks before his death, he had given an interview to BBC Sport on their visit to Cairo in the run-up to the World Cup being held in Japan and South Korea that summer.