Mohamed Naser Elsayed Elneny (محمد ناصر السيد النني; born 11 July 1992) is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Arsenal and the Egypt national team.
2008
In 2008, he transferred to Al Mokawloon during the 2010–2011 season.
Elneny advanced and became a regular in the starting team.
2011
He has earned over 100 caps for the senior team since 2011, representing Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023, as well as the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Elneny played his youth football with Al Ahly.
2012
Elneny competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics for the Egyptian under-23 team.
Following the Port Said Stadium disaster in early February 2012, the Egyptian Premier League was stopped and all subsequent matches of the 2011–12 Egyptian Premier League were postponed.
On 10 March 2012, the Egyptian Football Association announced their decision to cancel the remainder of the season.
At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13 Elneny won the Championship title and was Swiss Cup runner up with Basel.
In the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League Basel advanced as far as the semi-finals, there being matched against the reigning UEFA Champions League holders Chelsea, but they were knocked out, losing both home and away ties, beaten 2–5 on aggregate.
2013
Elneny began his senior career in the Egyptian Premier League, before moving to Swiss club Basel in January 2013.
He won eight honours at Basel, including the Swiss Super League in each of his four seasons.
FC Basel had been watching Elneny for some time and invited him to their training camp in Estepona from 14 to 24 January 2013.
Elneny played his unofficial debut on 18 January 2013 during the friendly match against Steaua București, a 1–1 draw.
Elneny was able to impress Basel's trainer Murat Yakin during the training camp and on 29 January 2013, it was announced that he had signed a loan contract with Basel up until the end of June 2013.
Elneny played his official debut for Basel in the 2012–13 Swiss Super League season on 10 February 2013 in the 3–0 home win against Sion as he was substituted in at half time.
During May 2013 Basel announced that they had taken up the option of signing the Egyptian midfielder on a permanent basis.
At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Elneny won the league championship with Basel.
They also reached the final of the 2013–14 Swiss Cup, but were beaten 2–0 by Zürich after extra time.
During the 2013–14 Champions League season Basel reached the group stage and finished the group in third position.
Thus they qualified for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals.
In their season 2013–14 Basel played a total of 68 matches (36 Swiss League fixtures, 6 Swiss Cup, 6 Champions League and 10 Europa League and 10 test matches).
Elneny totaled 55 appearances, 32 League, 4 Cup, 6 Champions League and 6 Europa League as well 7 in the test games.
He scored just that one goal in the league.
2014
He scored his first goal for Basel, the last goal of the match, in the 4–2 home win at the St. Jakob-Park against Zurich on 16 April 2014.
The season 2014–15 was a very successful one for Elneny and FC Basel.
The championship was won for the sixth time in a row that season and in the 2014–15 Swiss Cup they reached the final.
But for the third season in a row, they finished as runners-up, losing 0–3 to FC Sion in the final.
Basel entered the Champions League in the group stage and reached the knockout phase as on 9 December 2014 they managed a 1–1 draw at Anfield against Liverpool.
But then Basel then lost to Porto in the Round of 16.
Basel played a total of 65 matches (36 Swiss League fixtures, 6 Swiss Cup, 8 Champions League and 15 test matches).
Under manager Paulo Sousa Elneny totaled 51 appearances, 29 in the Super League, 6 in the Cup and 7 in the Champions League, as well 9 in test games.
He scored 5 goals in these matches.
2015
Despite the fact that Elneny left the club during the winter break, under their new trainer Urs Fischer Basel won the Swiss Super League championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season.
2016
In January 2016, he was transferred to Arsenal.
2017
He signed a four-year contract up-until 30 June 2017.
2019
For Elneny it was the fourth title, for the club it was the seventh in a row and their 19th championship title in total.
During his time with the club, Elneny played a total of 169 games for Basel scoring a total of 13 goals.
91 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, 16 in the Swiss Cup, 37 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 25 were friendly games.
He scored five goals in the domestic league, three in the cup, two in the Europa League and the other three were scored during the test games.
