In recent days social media has been filled with anger and discontent after a post by Wadi Degla club owner in Egypt, Majid Sami, on his official Facebook account about a coach and a Christian player and religious discrimination. His post read: “So if you are Christian and live in a country that is mostly Muslim and you fear discrimination, don’t name your son Yohanna; name him Youssef, Amin. And if you are Muslim and live in a country that is mostly Christian and fear persecution, don’t name your son Hussein; name him Anwar, Montaser.”

There is no doubt that Majid Sami’s comments about naming players amount to an implicit admission that discrimination and persecution affect Christian talents who apply for youth trials. This is reinforced by the confirmed incident in which Al Ittihad Alexandria coach Ahmed Sary excluded player Makary Younan from the club’s youth trials because of his name, prompting Mr. Johar Nabil, the Minister of Youth and Sports, to intervene and open an immediate urgent investigation into the youngster’s exclusion on religious grounds. It raises the question of whether there have been unannounced pressures and conditions known to club officials that have led to the rejection of hundreds of Christian sporting talents over many decades.

We all recognize that Muslim players are not persecuted in countries with Christian majorities, unlike in some Muslim-majority countries where full citizenship is not always recognized. This is evident from the presence of Muslim citizens in the national football teams of Christian-majority European countries such as France, England, and Spain, which took part in the World Cup in recent weeks. Likewise, there are African and Egyptian professionals playing in those countries, including Egyptians who represented Egypt at the World Cup, led by Mohamed Salah.