When Mohamed Elneny was told earlier this year he would be signing a new contract with Arsenal, he broke down in tears.
At the time, midfielder Elneny had just suffered a serious knee injury that would keep him sidelined until late September following 260 days on the sidelines.
With his contract set to expire in June, the 31-year-old feared his seven-year stay in north London was over.
Arsenal, however, had other ideas and the Egyptian was handed a new one-year contract to ensure he remains this squad’s longest-serving player.
“It was one of the happiest days in my life,” says Elneny. “The way they spoke to me, the way the entire club was happy about this decision, they made me cry this day.
“Arsenal football club, they know I love them 100 per cent, so much. They know I don’t want to leave. I want to stay and finish my career there, 100 per cent.
“I was injured and my contract was finishing and I could not play anymore last season, and they came straight away after I got injured, the next day and said: ‘Mo, what sort of contract will it have to be? We love you here and we and we want you to stay’. Really, this club is great.”
Elneny has been at Arsenal so long that he calls north London “home”. His actions back up his words and it is a sign of how settled he is, and how much he is looking to the future, that he has launched his own football team in the capital.
Elneny FC was born earlier this year as an under-10s side which the midfielder’s son played in and he helped coach. Expansion began during the summer with further youth sides and a senior team eyed by the Arsenal player.
Trials are taking place over the next three weeks in Essex and London, with the hope of building a 25-player squad. They will train for a year, with Elneny taking some of the sessions, and then all being well join a league next season.
“I am thinking about football all the time because I know we have had older players before who have finished their careers, and they don’t know what to do after,” says Elneny. “It is much better to think now, because then when you finish you can have something already built.
“The idea started from that because we want to stay in England but I cannot just stay in England without work [after retiring from playing]. I cannot just stay at home doing nothing.
“That’s why I was thinking [about] what business I can do. I cannot open restaurants because my passion is football, from day one.”
Elneny has been doing his coaching badges and has secured his UEFA B Licence. He is one of a number of Arsenal players, past and present, who have been inspired to go into coaching after working under Mikel Arteta.
Elneny has grand plans for his club. The name, he insists, will change eventually but is currently in place to maximise exposure. Interest in trials has been so great they have had to put on another date.
The name may change, but Elneny’s ambition and willingness to dream won’t. The Premier League is his ultimate goal.
“I have told so many people and they are just laughing at me because when I say I want to play in the Premier League one day, they just say: ‘How? The Premier League is the best in the world and you want to get there from zero?’,” he says.
I love to dream. What am I going to lose?
“Some people just don’t get the idea but for me, I love to dream. That is why I need good people around me. Of course, it could take 15 years, 20 years but we have the target where we want to be.”
Elneny’s argument for dreaming big stems from his own career. He began playing in Egypt and can recall speaking to a journalist who scoffed at his lofty ambitions.
“He said to me: ‘Mo, where you do you want to play?’,” recalls Elneny. “I was playing for a club in the middle of the table in Egypt, but I said to him: ‘I want to play at the Camp Nou in Barcelona’.
“I swear to you, he just walked off and didn’t continue the interview with me, no thank you, no goodbye or anything, he just walked off.”
Later on in his career, Elneny would be scoring for Arsenal against Barcelona at the Camp Nou in the Champions League.
“If you don’t dream big in football, you will not get anything,” he says. “If you dream big at least you’re gonna be close. This is what I really believe. I love to dream. What am I going to lose?”
Taking Elneny FC to the Premier League may well be a dream that never comes true, but right now Arsenal’s hunt for the title goes on.
Even if he is looking to the future, Elneny insists he still has plenty of years left in his legs and is determined to play his part this season.
“I want to finish my career when I’m 37 or 36, so I still have five or six years left to go,” he says.
“I’m working really hard like always and trying to go back into the first XI for Arsenal. For sure, it’s my goal this year.
“I know I’m coming back from a long injury and this is what I’m doing in the training ground; fighting, fighting and fighting to come back and be in the starting XI.
“That’s why I’m giving 100 per cent every day to show I’m ready to play and then when I get the chance to play, I have to show I can still be there and give my everything to this club.”
