The last appearance of Hossam Salameh, “Paulo” in the Premier League, was in the meeting between Tala’a El-Geish and the former Egyptian Club “Z-Now” on the nineteenth of last October.
And now the 37-year-old is embarking on an exciting journey with Arsenal in the second division to help them advance to the Premier League and achieve a personal goal he seeks.
Why did Paulo move to the second division and what is the secret of the sudden disappearance of the league’s top scorer for two consecutive seasons? The former Al Dakhliya and Zamalek striker answers FilGoal.com.
Paulo began his speech by saying: “After my experience with Zamalek, I moved to the Alexandria Union, then the contractors, then the Interior, then the Vanguards of the Army, there were many experiences.”
And he continued, “My experience with the Vanguards of the Army was not good at all, whether with Tariq Yahya or Abdel Hamid Bassiouni, neither of them gave me the opportunity.”
He continued, “All clubs where I did not get a chance I removed it from my life.”
And when asked whether there was a personal problem with any of the coaches, Paulo answered, “Abdelhamid Bassiouni used to excite me a lot and tell me, you scorer, to enter the hundred club and then I find myself not participating.”
He continued, sarcastically, “I found myself entering the 100th club in the league while I was outside the list of matches.”
Paulo scored 63 goals in the Premier League before moving to the arsenal.
And he continued, “I deserved to participate with the Vanguard of the Army, I remember in the team camp in Alexandria before the tournament I was participating in training normally and I was brilliant and there were injured players who did not participate in the training.”
And he added, “I was supposed to start the matches, but I was surprised that those who came back from the injury participate in training and matches and I am completely out of his mind.”
On his accession to the arsenal, Paulo said: “There were no offers to join me because of what happened with the army vanguard and I did not participate in the matches until the arsenal came.”
He stressed, “I am happy with that experience and I moved to the club to return it to the Premier League. If they hadn’t had a goal, I wouldn’t have moved to them. I want to lead the team to the Premier League promotion.”
He continued, “Everyone thinks that my transfer to the arsenal is a step after which I will retire. I tell everyone I am able to give and I will not retire unless I feel unable to play.”
“A lot of people play in the Premier League and they are not better than me. I do not concern myself with the age factor. I want to restore the arsenal to the Premier League and enter the 100 club,” he said.
During the history of the Egyptian League, only nine players scored more than 100 goals, namely Hassan El Shazly, Hussam Hassan, Al-Sayed Al-Dhidawi, Mustafa Riad, Abdullah Al-Saeed, Mahmoud Al-Khatib, Ahmed Al-Kass, Mohamed Abu Trika and Jamal Abdel-Hamid.
After nine rounds, Arsenal ranks fifth in the Premier League’s ascension race with 13 points, six points behind leaders Porto Suez.
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