Mohamed Latif

Mohamed Latif

Latif with Zamalek in 1940
Personal information
Date of birth	(1909-10-23)23 October 1909
Place of birth	Beni Suef, Egypt
Date of death	17 March 1990(1990-03-17) (aged 80)
Place of death	Cairo, Egypt
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1926-1935	Zamalek
1935–1936[1]	Rangers	1	(0)
1936-1945	Zamalek
International career
1932-1942	Egypt
Managerial career
	Zamalek
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mohamed Latif (Arabic: ;محمد لطيف 23 October 1909 – 17 March 1990) was an Egyptian football manager, pundit, referee and executive. He was a former professional footballer. He played for the clubs El-Zamalek of Egypt and Rangers F.C. of Scotland,^[2] as well as for the Egypt national team.^[3]

Latif started his professional career in Zamalek in 1926, he was the main Zamalek's forward for nine seasons. After a brief spell in Rangers in 1935, he returned to Zamalek in the 1936–37 and played until his retirement in 1945.

Latif won with Zamalek six titles of the Egypt Cup (1931–32, 1934–35, 1937–38, 1940–41, 1942–43, 1943–44). He also won with his team the Cairo League for eight seasons (1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45), and two titles of the King Fouad Cup (1933–34, 1940–41). Latif scored six goals in the Cairo derby, he was Zamalek's captain in the early 1940s.

After the World Cup, Latif went to Glasgow, as did goalkeeper Mustafa Mansour, possibly at the suggestion of Egypt's national coach, Scotsman James McRea.^[4][5] He played his only Scottish League match for Rangers in the 1935–36 season, against Hibs.^[6][7]

Latif helped the Egypt national team qualify for the 1934 World Cup, scoring three goals against the Mandatory Palestine football team during the qualification rounds.^[8] He also played at the finals tournament with Egypt in the group stage.

In 1936, he was part of the Egyptian team that played in the Olympic tournament in Berlin.^[9] He played for Egypt for 10 years. Due to the outbreak of World War II, he was unlucky as all sports activities were cancelled.^[10]

After retirement from football, he worked as a referee in the 1940s until he earned the international badge and officiated many international matches. Latif also held several managerial roles in the Egyptian Football Association during the 1950s. He also worked as Zamalek's coach in the early 1960s. He won the 1962 Egypt Cup title with Zamalek as the head coach.^[11]

He was the first to introduce football commentary on television and was the General Head of sports programs in the Egyptian Television for 16 years. He has broadcast World Cup matches since 1962.

His fame increased when, in 1948, he moved into the field of commentating on matches in radio, and he remained with the microphone until his death on 17 March 1990. He was called the Sheikh of Commentators. Mohamed Latif was distinguished by his own distinctive style in commenting on football matches, and his commentary was of great importance, especially in the Cairo derby matches.^[12]

He has reached such an extent of fame that he was hosted in Egyptian films as a sports commentator on football matches. Perhaps among the most prominent of these films is the film Stranger in My House starring Soad Hosny and Nour El Sherif, and the film In Summer We Must Love starring Salah Zulfikar and Samir Ghanem.^[13]

Zamalek

• Egypt Cup: 1932, 1935, 1938, 1941, 1943, 1944
• Cairo League: 1928–29, 1929–30, 1931–32, 1933–34, 1939–40, 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45
• King's Cup: 1933–34, 1940–41

Rangers

• Scottish Cup: 1935–36

Egypt

• Summer Olympics: fourth place 1928

Zamalek

• Egypt Cup: 1962

• Mohamed Latif at fussballdaten.de (in German)