Seif Costa on Egypt's radar after debut season at FC Porto | OneFootball

The Egyptian Football Association is stepping up its talent-scouting policy in the European diaspora and has now set its sights on young FC Porto forward Seif Costa, one of the Dragons’ Under-17 champions. At just 17, the player is seen as a potential asset for the future of the Pharaohs’ national team, along similar lines to Oviedo’s Haissem Hassan, who is already part of the Egyptian squad.

Seif Costa holds three nationalities: Portuguese, through his father; Egyptian, through his mother; and Emirati, from the country where he grew up. This triple citizenship puts him on the radar of three federations and opens up several possibilities for his international career. The player is in his first season with FC Porto, after two seasons at Al Wasl in the UAE and another two years at Salgueiros.

One factor working in Egypt’s favor is the preference expressed by the player’s family, who want to see him represent the Egyptian national team rather than Portugal or the UAE — Seif Costa has already been called up by the latter.

FIFA regulations leave room for that scenario. The rules currently in force allow youth-level players to change their sporting nationality. In this way, the fact that Seif Costa has already played for the UAE’s youth teams does not prevent him from choosing to wear Egypt’s shirt in the future.

The example of Haissem Hassan, who was born in France and was persuaded to switch his sporting nationality and is with Egypt at the 2026 World Cup, serves as a reference point and reinforces the federation’s strategy of seeking out players with Egyptian roots in European football. Seif Costa’s case represents another step in that direction, with the Egyptian federation seeing a concrete opportunity to secure another promising youngster for the future of its team.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.