When cafes across Egypt flood with excited supporters this month to watch the national team take part in a World Cup for the first time since 1990, there will be a sense of frustration among many of the country’s Coptic Christian footballers who claim only Muslims get to play.
One former player, Mina Bendary, 22, from Alexandria, gave up on his dream of becoming a professional player in 2015 due to what he perceives as religious discrimination. He says that having a Coptic Christian name proved an obstacle to cementing a place in the first team after joining Al Ittihad, an Alexandria-based Premier League club, three years earlier.
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