Mustafa Mansour

Mustafa Kamel Mansour (2 August 1914 – 24 July 2002) 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.^[1]

Mansour also played for Egypt at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.^[2]

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.^[3] While studying in Glasgow, Mansour appeared for the famous amateur side Queens Park, becoming their regular goalkeeper upon the retirement of (future Celtic chairman) Desmond White during the 1938-39 season.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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