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Rami Rabia talks EPL, Wenger and captain responsibilities – FIFA

Egypt U-20 Rami Rabia

Image courtesy of FIFA.com

Speaking exclusively to FIFA.com ahead of Egypt’s crucial game versus England in Group E of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey, Egypt’s U-20 National Team captain, sturdy centre-back and African hot-property Rami Rabia gave an insight on why he would love to move to the English Premier League, Arsene Wenger, his responsibilities as the team’s captain and the sub-par performances of the U-20 team in the tournament so far.

With the crucial England game coming up, Rabia was full of praise for the English Premier League. He also spoke about interest from English clubs and Arsene Wenger.

“The English league is definitely my favorite,” he said. “I don’t have a particular team I support but I love watching all the great sides; Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United. That’s the kind of football I love and my hope is definitely to play there at one stage in my career. It’s my dream, and I think it’s the kind of league that would suit me.”

“Some English clubs have been mentioned as being interested in me, and I know Arsene Wenger said some nice things about my performances for Al Ahly at the Club World Cup. I don’t know what will come of that but I know I need to do well here and show everyone that I am a good player.”

Speaking about his role as the U-20 National team captain, he gave insight about the burden and responsibility of that honor, especially coming back after an injury.

“It’s a very big responsibility for me to be captain and a very big honor too,” he said. “I really appreciate the coach putting this faith in me, especially because I missed all of the friendly matches and the preparation work before this tournament due to an injury. I only came back a few days before our first game, so I didn’t expect this honor and I know I owe the coach a lot. As captain, I have been trying to speak to the players and build their confidence back up because I can see that some of them have been nervous about playing in a World Cup.”

With two defeats in two games, quite a number of people were disappointed with the team’s performances, especially being the reigning champions of Africa. Rabia talks about moving on and concentrating on Group E’s final game against England.

“We all know we should have done a lot better. But the most important thing for us now is to win and give the Egypt fans something to cheer, because their support for us here in Turkey has been great. The players are all hurt by what has happened but we have looked closely at our mistakes and everyone is determined to turn things around. We still believe we can do something.”

Watch Rami Rabia and the rest of the Young Pharaohs take on England’s U-20 National team in the final game of Group E on June the 29th. It is to be noted that the Egyptian team has to beat England by three goals to nil at least to stand a chance of qualifying to the knockout stages.

Follow @MohSeif on Twitter – Mohamed Seif

Co-founder of KingFut.com and a Cairo-based journalist with over 5 years of experience in sports journalism. Working previously in Goal.com international, a Sports Editor of READ Newspaper, doing TV punditry and freelancing in various blogs and publications. He’ll be bringing all this experience to King Fut.

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