Former Premier League footballer Ramadan Sobhi has been sentenced to one year in prison after he was found to have committed academic fraud in his native Egypt.
The Pyramids FC star – who helped the side win the CAF Champions League last season for the first time – signed for then-top-flight fixtures Stoke City in 2016 in a £5million deal from Egyptian side Al Ahly.
Sobhi played 46 times across two seasons for Staffordshire team, before moving to Huddersfield Town in 2018 following the former club’s relegation to the Championship.
The 28-year-old returned to Egypt in 2018, but has seen his career mired in controversy over the course of 2025.
In November, Sobhi received a four-year playing ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport after receiving an anti-doping violation.
The so-called ‘Egyptian Messi’, as he was known in his youth days, had first failed a drugs test in March 2024, before his provisional ban was lifted by the Egyptian Anti-Doping Organisation in June of that year.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed this decision, with CAS siding with the international organisation.
But Sobhi will now face an even greater punishment, after being found guilty in a fraud case relating to his hospitality exams.
It was alleged that the star and fellow defendants had falsified paperwork while Sobhi was studying at the Pharaonic Higher Institute for Tourism and Hotels in Giza, near Cairo, including exam answer sheets and records of attendance.
Sobhi was also accused of having had someone else sit his exams for him.
At the time the allegations were made, Sobhi had offered a statement to an Egyptian outlet saying that he had ‘no knowledge of these certificates or records’.
He added: ‘I have never seen them, and I am still a third-year student’.
A second defendant in the case was handed a sentence to one year with labour, a third individual was acquitted, while the fourth, who is a fugitive, received a 10-year sentence in absentia.
As per Misr Connect, sources within Pyramids FC stressed that the club has respect for the judicial process, but noted that they were waiting for Sobhi’s legal team to file an appeal before offering comment.
