Egypt men's national handball team explained

Egypt
Badge:Egypt handball team shirt crest 2016.svg
Badge Size:145px
Nickname:The Pharaohs
Association:Egyptian Handball Federation
Coach:Juan Carlos Pastor
Assistant Coach:Hany El-Fakharany
José Manuel Sierra Méndez
Captain:Ibrahim El-Masry
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Summer Olympics Apps:8
Summer Olympics First:1992
Summer Olympics Best:4th (2020)
World Cup Apps:18
World Cup First:1964
World Cup Best:4th (2001)
Regional Name:African Championship
Regional Cup Apps:24
Regional Cup First:1979
Regional Cup Best: (1991, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2016, 2020, 2022, 2024)

The Egyptian national handball team is the national handball team of Egypt, which represents Egypt in international matches. It is supervised by the Egyptian Handball Federation. Egypt was the first non-European team to reach the semifinals of the World Championships, and the first African team to reach the semifinals in the Olympic tournament.

Egypt men handball team is widely regarded as the finest handball team in Africa.

History

Egypt's first appearance at the IHF World Championship was in 1964, where they failed to win a single game.

After Egypt started developing their handball infrastructure, Egypt qualified for the 1993 tournament at Sweden. They were able to win a game this time, against Czechoslovakia and they were able to qualify to the second round.

Egypt's performance at the 1995 Championship rose Egypt to a respectable team. Egypt won all three matches in the first round, beating Brazil, Kuwait and Belarus. The team was widely expected not to survive the knockout stage, but beat four-time World Champions Romania in the round of 16. While they were later beaten at the quarterfinals against Croatia, the team was praised back home.

Egypt advanced to the quarterfinals every time between 1995 and 2001. They also reached 6th place at the 1996 Olympics and 7th at 2000. Egypt hosted the World Championship in 1999 for the first time, failing to reach the semi-finals after a loss against Russia.

In the 2001 IHF World Championship, Egypt beat Morocco, Portugal and Iceland, drew with the Czech Republic and lost to Sweden. At the knockout stage, Egypt beat fellow Africans, Algeria. At the quarterfinals, where Egypt has been knocked out three times prior, Egypt faced Russia again, winning the close game 21–19. After losses against France and Yugoslavia, Egypt placed fourth. This was the best performance by a non-European team until it was equaled by Tunisia in 2005 and beaten by Qatar in 2015.

Between 2003 and 2017, Egypt qualified to every tournament save for the 2012 Olympics, but failed to impress, never advancing to the quarterfinal. Egypt broke this streak at the 2019 World Championship, where they placed eighth. Egypt then went on to host the first 32-team Championship in 2021, finishing seventh after losing to reigning World Champions, Denmark on penalties, who later won the tournament.

Egypt beat their rivals Tunisia in their own court, qualifying to the 2020 Olympics. In the group stage, Egypt finished 2nd, after beating Portugal, Sweden, Bahrain and Japan, and losing to World Champions Denmark once again. They then won against Germany in the quarterfinals, progressing to the semifinals. They lost to France by a 4-goal margin, despite having had a 4-goal lead early on. In the Bronze Medal match, Egypt lost to Spain, placing 4th overall.

Competitive record

Olympic Games

EditionRoundPosition
1936 BerlinDid not enter
Handball Tournament not held from 1948 to 1968
1972 MunichDid not enter
1976 Montreal
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles
1988 Seoul
Match for 11th place 11th of 12 6 1 0 5 119 137 −18
Match for 5th place 6th of 12 6 3 0 3 139 132 +7
Match for 7th place 7th of 12 8 4 0 4 197 194 +3
Match for 11th place 12th of 12 6 0 0 6 134 163 −29
Group Stage 10th of 12 5 0 2 3 127 132 −5
2012 LondonDisqualified
Group Stage 9th of 12 5 1 1 3 129 143 −14
Bronze Medal Match 4th of 12 8 5 0 3 239 220 +19
Quarter finals 5th of 12 6 3 1 2 176 169 +7
2028 Los AngelesTBD
2032 Brisbane
Total8/140 Titles501742912601290−30

World Championship

EditionRoundPosition
Did not enter
1954 Sweden
1958 East Germany
1961 West Germany
Preliminary round 15th of 16 3 0 0 3 28 58 −30
Did not enter
1970 France
1974 East Germany
1978 Denmark
1982 West Germany
1986 Switzerland
1990 Czechoslovaki
Match for 11th place 12th of 16 7 1 0 6 148 164 −16
Match for 5th place 6th of 24 9 5 0 4 211 214 −3
Match for 5th place 6th of 24 9 6 1 2 220 186 +34
Match for 7th place 7th of 24 9 6 0 3 230 214 +16
Bronze Medal Match 4th of 24 9 5 1 3 207 206 +1
Second round 15th of 24 7 2 1 4 177 197 −20
Preliminary round 14th of 24 5 3 0 2 123 123 0
Match for 17th place 17th of 24 6 2 0 4 142 151 −9
Match for 13th place 14th of 24 9 4 0 5 218 239 −21
Match for 13th place 14th of 24 7 2 0 5 172 193 −21
Round of 16 16th of 24 6 1 1 4 156 154 +2
Round of 16 14th of 24 6 2 1 3 151 148 +3
Round of 16 13th of 24 6 3 0 3 157 164 −7
Match for 7th place 8th of 24 93 1 5 241 250 −9
Quarter finals 7th of 32 7 4 21 219 181 +38
Match for 7th place 7th of 32 9 6 0 3 272 233 +39
// 2025 Croatia/Denmark/NorwayQualified
2027 GermanyTBD
/ 2029 France/Germany
// 2031 Denmark/Iceland/Norway
Total18/320 Titles1235586030723075−3

African Championship

EditionRoundPosition
Did not enter
1976 AlgeriaDisqualified
Final Runners-up
Bronze Medal Match 4th of 8 5 3 0 2
Bronze Medal Match 4th of 10 6 3 0 3
Bronze Medal Match 4th of 9 6 3 0 3 118 123 −5
Final Runners-up 5 2 1 282 90 −8
Final Runners-up 4 3 0 1 89 81 +8
Final Champions 6 6 0 0 123 61 +62
Final Champions 4 4 0 0
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 9 5 4 0 1
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 10 6 4 0 2 146 112 +34
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 10 6 5 0 1 210 117 +93
Final Champions 6 6 0 0 175 100 +75
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 5 4 0 1 142 106 +36
Final Champions 7 7 0 0 250 147 +103
Final Runners-up 6 5 0 1 184 129 +55
Final Champions 5 5 0 0 152 117 +35
Final Runners-up 7 6 0 1 208 144 +64
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 8 6 1 1 239 161 +78
Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 8 6 0 2 217 166 +51
Final Champions 8 8 0 0 233 139 +94
Final Runners-up 7 6 0 1 213 164 +49
Final Champions 7 7 0 0 237 152 +85
Final Champions 5 5 0 0 176 109 +67
Final Champions 6 6 0 0 198 121 +77
Total24/269 Titles13811422233922339+1053

All-Africa Games

Mediterranean Games

Unofficial tournaments

MENA Games

Islamic Solidarity Games

Team

Current squad

Roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Notable former coaches

See also

External links