The honor of Al-Tilal is preserved.. the march of the golden boy to happy Yemen
The captain of the Yemeni national team, and the best stars that Al-Tilal Club produced throughout its ancient history, and Yemeni football in general, the predictions of the great star Ali Mohsen Merisi became true to become the owner of the slim body, a player who does not find dust, a seasoned leader and a sniper of a unique style, unique in scoring with feet and head, his reputation exceeded the Yemeni arena to all parts of the great Arab world, who became his first scorer after he was a top scorer for Yemen. He formed a distinguished duo with Sultan Omar Al-Barak. He was characterized by extreme humility.
He is the winner of the Golden Boot as a top scorer for the Arabs, Sharaf Mahfouz Sharaf, who was born on July 20, 1966 in a family of 5 males and 4 females. His love of football was similar as his siblings. Sharaf Mahfouz started in goalkeeping because he loved seeing goals, but he was pitying his fellow attackers when they failed to shake his net, so he decided to try his luck to turn into a striker who scored goals, until many liked him, led by Ali Mohsen, who gave him a sports uniform and sports shoes in appreciation of his inimitable talent, and predicted him to become a scorer who is great and skilled and who can score with both feet and head.
Sharaf’s talent spread in the small Al Mualla stadiums, and his father feared for him a lot because he was the eldest son, so he did not hesitate to hit him until he stopped playing for fear of injury and failure in his studies, and he did not realize that his son would remain healthy and would be 24 years old in the stadiums and that he would not fail and would pass years in is studies and becomes a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Aden in Administrative Sciences. Despite this, Sharaf says that he learned many good qualities from his father, which had an impact on the formation of his personality, foremost of which is humility to the point of simplicity, sincerity to the point of sacrifice, love, giving, patience, challenge, endurance and tolerance.
Sharaf’s third trip was to the marinas of Sira Castle, where his stardom exploded. He played in the youth team under the leadership of coach Khaled Abdullah Qassem, season 82/83, to compete with his colleagues in the junior league. Al-Tilaleen managed to top their group, which included Al-Tilal, Al-Wehda, Al-Jaish and Al-Sharara, and qualified for the semi-finals to face the team’s honor that was his first stop, and Al-Tilal won by two clean goals. Sharaf scored one of them amid the protest of some from Shamsan that he is a restricted player in their team. The youth was afraid that the matter of registering the membership form in Shamsan would be exposed, and his fear doubled his expectation of the size of the penalty that could be issued by the Football Association, which could have eliminated a player like him. The Shamsani were right that he had filled out the membership form in their club, but they were unable to prove his registration in the records of the Football Association, which does not recognize the affiliation of any player until after he is registered in the records and after he signs in front of the officials, which the Shamsi forgot to do so they lost their protest, while Al-Tilaleen ascended to the final match to meet Hassan, to lose to it and be satisfied with the runner-up title. Simmah Sharaf Mahfouz Sharaf is good at playing with both feet and has a golden head.
Sharaf did not last long with the youth, and he was quickly promoted to the higher youth team in the following season, while the circumstances of the national team served him to find a place for him in the first team of Al-Tilal Club within the demons of the Red Castle, when the coach of the first team, Saeed Mohamed Daala, decided to escalate nine of the young and junior players to cover the shortage left by the club players participating with the national team season 84/85, so that this season is the confident starting point for Sharaf towards the world of stardom, and just as Sharaf was able to establish his feet among the giants of hillball despite his slim body, he was also able to find a path for himself in the national teams and for 16 years was a key player in them, even though he left the team’s first match against the Qatari team, carried on a stretcher.
Sharaf’s dream was not limited to joining the national team only, but he was eager to represent Greater Yemen, which was achieved when Azzam Khalifa chose him among 16 players who represented the southern part of Yemen in the unified team in 88, which played four games before the Yemeni unity, and Sharaf scored the first goals in it against the Ethiopian team, after achieving unity on May 22, 1990, Sharaf was one of the squad of the first Yemeni team born under the Republic of Yemen under the leadership of Brazilian coach Ahmed Luciano, and he scored the honor of the first goals of this team against the Malaysian team, which he considers his most valuable goals. In addition to Al-Tilal’s goal, which he scored against Bahrain’s West Riffa in 1992, which took Al-Tilal to the second round of the Asian Club Championship, although Sharaf considers his goal against the Indian team in the Asian qualifiers the most beautiful in his career, while his worst goals are the ones he shook in his brother Helmy’s goal, because that goal was the reason for Captain Adel Ismail to replace him from the goalkeeper. As for the goal that Sharaf regretted missing, it was the winning goal that he would score against the Aden unit during the Cup of the late Ali Mohsen Al-Thal. The third season 95/96, Al Wahda won in overtime with the goal of Khaled Al-Asal.
He did not leave the honor of the Al-Tilaleen, and he was able to achieve glory while within its ranks, as he scored 121 goals in his career in the General League, and 12 goals in the cup tournaments, with a total of 133 goals, including 43 before Al-Wahda and 90 after Al-Wahda to occupy the first place in the list of top scorers in Al-Tilaleen and he could double those goals it not for his professionalism in the 97/98 season in the ranks of the Lebanese solidarity of Tire for one season only, after he found himself forced to return home, as the Yemeni airlines in which he works refused to extend his sabbatical period, to return to Al-Tilaleen and lead it since the 1999/2000 season until his retirement. He led the team to clinch the league shield in the 2004/05 season, and continued to defend the Yemeni national team shirt until the Asian qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, led by Brazilian Ahmed Luciano.
The official Sharaf international matches amounted to 33 matches, including 4 with the Al-Tilal team, and during the 24 years of giving that distinguished Sharaf, as well as the uniqueness of his danger in the stadiums, the smile did not leave his lips even when he was subjected to injustice and prejudice and received the only red card in his career.
Sharaf Mahfouz was not a professional player, but he was an amateur football, a lover of Al-Tilaleen, and a defender of the Red Castle. He contributed to achieving many championships for the hills, the last of which was his leadership of the team in achieving the Yemeni League Shield in the 2004/2005 season, and he achieved many accomplishments, the last of which was his mission to lead Al-Tilaleen as a coach, he managed to overcome the danger stages that were attacking it to achieve the bronze medal in the 2005/2006 season. The love of the football fans for Sharaf is the greatest achievement he has achieved and that no player before him has achieved, just as no player before him achieved the title of Arab top scorer, which was unique to the honor of Yemen until he left the stadiums.
The legend, Sharaf Mahfouz, bore many titles for what he presented, the most important of which are: what former Minister of Information Hussein al-Awadi called “Sharaf Mahfouz an interesting book of which there is only one copy,” “Sharaf of the Hills Mahfouz” launched by journalist Aidarous Abdel Rahman, and “Sharaf Mahfouz.” Al-Yaman Mahfouz” was launched by the late Sheikh of Journalists Muhammad Abdullah Farea, and other titles include “the golden scorer” and “the owner of the golden head”.
Personal achievements
Chosen as one of the 20 best players in the Arab world in 1993
The Arab top scorer with 30 goals and received the Golden Boot by the Lebanese “Al Hadath Al Riyadi” magazine in 1992
In 2007, he was chosen among the Gulf Stars Over the Ages list.
In Gulf 22, he was the ambassador of Yemen in the tournament.
Achievements with the hills
1987 League Championship.
1988 runner-up.
1990 The first unified league championship and it was a refresher league.
1991 runner-up to the league.
1997 League Championship runner-up.
2001 third league and cup runner-up.
2003 runner-up.
2004 Third League Championship.
2005 League Championship for the second time after achieving the blessed Yemeni unity.
International Achievements
Qualification to the finals of the Asian Nations with the junior team in 1984.
He scored the first Yemeni goal after achieving unity with the unified team, and that was against the Ethiopian team.
• His last participation with the national team was in 2000 in Kuwait under the leadership of the Yugoslav Zoran.
His achievements as a coach
2006 He won third place with Al-Tilal Club, and in the same year he participated with Al-Tilal in the Arab Champions Championship against MC Algiers.
2007 Won the President’s Cup for the first time.
2010 runner-up.
2010 he won the President’s Cup with Al-Tilal.
2012 Al-Nasr Club coach – second degree.
His retirement
The retirement ceremony of the legendary star Sharaf Mahfouz was organized in 2007 in the city of Aden, his hometown, specifically at the Al-Hubaishi Stadium, with the participation of the Egyptian Tersana Club, which played in front of the Al-Tilal Club, which has many Yemeni football stars, and it was a solemn and great celebration for a great star.