The Sudanese football legend, the player of the Martian team, Kamal Abdel Wahab, who died last Tuesday, got a golden opportunity to professionalize the ranks of the people team in the seventies of the last century after the late President of the Republic of Sudan, Jaafar Al-Nimeiri, decided to stop sports activity in April 1977, dissolve all clubs and make sports mass .
The Republican decision, which came after the riots in the summit match between Hilal and Mars, caused a mass exodus of prominent and influential Sudanese players to most of the Gulf states, and the largest group in the Emirates settled, including Kamal Abdel Wahab, nicknamed "The Sudanese Football Doctor".
The former president of Al-Shaab club and his player, Dr. Ghanem Al-Hajri, who is currently Secretary General of the Equestrian Federation, said that the late Kamal Abdel Wahab came to the UAE and conducted a number of training classes with the "commando" and traveled with them to the external prep camp, but after returning from the camp he decided to return to Sudan suddenly.
Al-Hajri told Al-Emarat Al-Youm that he was a player in Al-Shaab team when Kamal Abdel Wahab arrived in the Emirates and that the latter was enjoying overwhelming stardom and prestige in Sudan and the decision to return to Sudan was surprising for many, and he said: “He was a winning player and he has great skill and in my estimation he deserved The title of Sudanese football doctor.
The president of Al-Shaab club revealed that he remembered that the Sudanese players left their clubs for professionalism was very difficult in view of the strength of the Sudanese league and the social standing of football fans among the fans, and said: "The clubs here contracted with them secretly so as not to find competition from other Emirati clubs."
Dr. Ghanem Al-Hajri pointed out that Sharjah, Al-Nasr and Al-Shaab clubs were competing with each other to contract the Sudanese players, and that if one contracted with a Sudanese player from the Hilal team, the other two clubs tend to contract with a player from Mars, and he said: "The secret was covering the registrations in UAE, as deals are kept secret so that clubs do not compete. "
The death was unseen last Tuesday afternoon, legend Kamal Abdel Wahab, at the age of 70 after a busy year of generosity, during which he was crowned with a group of individual and collective titles, including his contribution to the team winning the league title in the 70/71 season and with the full mark, and the fans called him "Doctor of the Ball" Sudanese. "
The Martian Club’s Board of Directors issued a press statement in which he mourned the late and described him as "the star of the team in the golden age."
The late was born in 1950 in Omdurman and received his education in the Evangelical Commercial, and he is from a sports family as his father was a football player while his uncle Abdullah Al-Haj was a player for the Abu Anja club and Al-Mawreda and the latter played a role in his transfer to the ranks of Mars in 1969.