At just 23-years-old, defender Amro Tarek is well-traveled. Born in Los Angeles in 1992, his family moved to Egypt within a year. Raised in the town of Asyut, Tarek moved to Germany at the age of 17 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional soccer player before continuing his career in Egypt and Spain. Now, Tarek is heading back to the country of his birth as he joins Crew SC on loan for the duration of the 2016 campaign.
“I’m so excited about America, especially because I was born there but never lived there. I’m really happy about it,” he says.
Picking up the game at the age of eight and joining his first club when he was 12, Tarek says he has never thought about another career choice.
“In school, when they always asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I always said I wanted to be a football player and all the other students said, ‘I want to be a doctor or an engineer,’ or something like this. I really never thought about something else.”
In Tarek’s quest, his father’s connections as a college professor came in handy. A friend at Magdeburg University in Germany set up tryout at 1. FC Magdeburg, and the rest is history.
Tarek played for Magdeburg’s Under-19 side before moving on to SC Freiburg II and eventually VfL Wolfsburg II. Following his stint in Germany, he moved back to his home country to play for El Gouna FC in the Egyptian Premier League. Two seasons later, Tarek moved to Spain, joining Real Betis in La Liga.
Experiencing different countries allowed the defender to learn different playing styles, which helped him develop his game.
“In these three countries, they are completely different. I hope that I learned the best thing from every country and that I can become a better player.”
Tarek describes himself as a fast and a strong defender with good vision. He says his style of play, particularly what he learned in Spain, could make his adjustment to Crew SC's style of building out of the back a little easier. But what he’s really looking forward to is working with Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter.
“Honestly, the coach," Tarek says about what drew him to Crew SC, "because he’s played in the same position like me and he’s also played in Germany. So I’m excited about this and I’m willing to learn from him.”
In addition to the Black & Gold boss, Tarek admires the development of Crew SC and MLS overall. Although he says he didn’t anticipate this move to the U.S. and MLS at this age, he says he is happy the opportunity presented itself.
“I can see now that the MLS is getting stronger and the League is really going up and it attracts a lot of professional football players in Europe," he says. "So when I had the chance to come to Columbus Crew SC, I didn’t have any doubts about it. I just accepted right away.”
As Tarek looks forward to joining his new teammates and beginning a new adventure in the Capital City, he has high expectations for 2016 with Crew SC.
“Any player, when you move to a new club, expectations are very high and very big,” he says. “Really I’m trying to do my best to help the team and to play as many games as possible and [hope] that we are getting good results.”
