Emam Ashour

Profile Overview

Emam Ashour Metwally Abdel Ghany (Arabic: إمام عاشور متولي عبد الغني; born 20 February 1998) is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder, winger or second striker for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly and the Egypt national team. He has also occasionally been deployed as a right-back. Capable of contributing on both halves of the field, Ashour has been described as a "Swiss Army Knife", and "the Egyptian Figo". Despite his talent, Ashour has been criticised for his disciplinary issues and criminal incident in 2024, and has been labelled a "flawed genius".
Ashour came up through El Mahalla, where he played until 2018. After a season-long loan to Haras El Hodoud, he transferred to Zamalek, where he won the Egyptian Premier League in 2020–21 and 2021–22, the Egypt Cup in 2018–19 and 2020–21, and the Egyptian Super Cup in 2018–19. Ashour briefly transferred to Danish side Midtjylland in the 2022–23 season, before moving to Al Ahly, where he immediately won the Egypt Cup. In the 2023–24 season, he won the Premier League again, alongside the Egyptian Super Cup and the CAF Champions League. He was also named to the 2023–24 Egyptian Premier League Team of the Season. The following season, he also won the Premier League, emerging as the club's talisman. He finished as the league's top goalscorer and was named the league's best player. This was accompanied by another Egyptian Super Cup and the FIFA African–Asian–Pacific Cup. In his second season successively, he was part of the 2024–25 Egyptian Premier League Team of the Season.
As a youth international for Egypt, Ashour won the 2019 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations. He was called up to participate in the 2020 Olympics games. Since then, he has represented the senior Egypt side in the Africa Cup of Nations in 2021, 2023 and 2025. Ashour was a focal player in Egypt's 2026 World Cup campaign, in which they reached the round of 16 – the nation's best-ever World Cup finish.