From 1.5 million euros to a nine-figure clause
Barcelona paid Al Ahly an initial 1.5 million euros for Hamza Abdelkarim in June. On Tuesday they handed him a deal running to 2030 and fixed his buyout clause at more than 100 million euros, sources told ESPN. Same player, roughly seventy times the number, inside a single summer.
The contract he has just replaced ran to 2029 and carried a release figure that any mid-table Premier League club could have covered without a board meeting. The new terms add a salary increase on top of the clause.
Abdelkarim is 18 years old.
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A season that moved faster than the paperwork
He arrived in January, announced as a reserve-team signing, and then spent the rest of the campaign with the U19 side. Egypt changed the trajectory. He made his senior international debut in May and featured in four of the Pharaohs’ five matches at the World Cup, a run that ended in the round of 16 against Argentina.
He took almost no break afterwards, reporting back for pre-season with Hansi Flick’s squad and scoring four goals in five friendlies. His LaLiga debut came in August against Rayo Vallecano. He has been in the matchday squad for all six of Barcelona’s fixtures this season.
Living with the nickname, waiting on the minutes
Those pre-season goals produced the label “Haaland of the Nile”, and he is not fighting it. “When someone asks me which players I look up to and learn from, I think Haaland is an amazing striker,” Abdelkarim said at his news conference. “Always when I watch him, I find something I can learn from him and something I can do to improve my game. We all know how good he is at scoring goals. He’s always in the right place. That’s something you can learn. I can see why you’re saying [I am the] Haaland of the Nile.”
The clause protects Barcelona. It does not get him on the pitch. Flick ranks him third among the strikers behind Raphinha and Gabriel Jesus, and that count ignores Dani Olmo, Anthony Gordon, Fermin Lopez and Karim Adeyemi, all of whom the coach has used through the middle this season. A teenager under contract until 2030 has plenty of time. A teenager who needs games rarely has as much of it.
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