A Spanish newspaper: Hamza Abdelkarim steals Haaland's skills and song
The Egyptian star dazzles Flick
Barcelona's young forward Hamza Abdelkarim (18) has introduced himself to the first team as a striker with a special scoring instinct, and an ability to move outside his zone to develop play with a single touch.
German coach Hansi Flick praised him after his brace against Birmingham. "As a striker, you have to appear inside the penalty area, and that is what he did today, and it is what I ask of the number 9," he said.
Hamza combines the qualities Flick asks of his forwards, and he has already found the net three times.
According to Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", Hamza's involvement in play mirrors Robert Lewandowski's from his last season.
The Polish striker averaged 8.6 passes per match. Hamza completed 8 against Basel and 9 against Birmingham, the only two friendly matches for which data is available.
Lewa averaged 19 touches. Hamza touched the ball 9 times in 45 minutes against Basel, and 24 times in 62 minutes against Birmingham.
His involvement in play, then, edges slightly above Lewandowski's, and he has scored three goals from five attempts on target.
Hamza's first training session at Barcelona featured a finishing drill designed to assess the Egyptian's level, and he won the technical staff over from the very first moment.
Diagonal strikes and shots towards the near post marked out an out-and-out striker. As those present at the session recounted: "When he played his first header, we said, 'Wow.'"
Barcelona's technical staff also noticed Hamza dropping deep intensively to receive the ball, in the manner of the team's forwards. Pol Planas and his staff stepped in to work with him on applying this at specific moments according to the demands of play, on vacating spaces and passing the ball, because they wanted him constantly present inside the penalty area, just as Flick prefers.
Planas's staff used video clips of the two stars Erling Haaland and Viktor Gyokeres to reinforce these concepts, alongside specific clips of Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o so he could learn the right moments to move away from his zone.
So striking was the comparison between Hamza and the Manchester City striker that his Barcelona teammates began singing to him jokingly, "Hamza, Hamza", to the tune of the famous "Haaland, Haaland".
Next Wednesday, the young forward plays his last friendly before the new season. He will make his first appearance at the Spotify Camp Nou in a fixture with a special flavour, against his former club, Egypt's Al Ahly.
His family support the Egyptian club, and his father once played for Egypt's volleyball national team. Hamza owned Barcelona shirts from childhood, and he played 9 matches with Al Ahly's first team.
