Cairo stages two CAF Champions League semi-final, second leg games on Friday evening, raising the prospect of a final between two teams from the same city. Two teams from South Africa stand in their way.
Holders and serial winners Al Ahly are home to Mamelodi Sundowns at Cairo’s vast international stadium. A sell-out crowd is expected.
Across the city in New Cairo, Pyramids entertain Orlando Pirates, where a sell-out crowd will be much harder to achieve given they are the upstarts still building a fan base. It’s one of the biggest games in Pyramids’ history.
Both first legs were drawn 0-0 in South Africa last week and outsiders may consider the Egyptian sides favourites.
Clubs from the country have been the pre-eminent force in African football, with Al Ahly winning the Champions League last year for the sixth time in eight years. Not even Real Madrid can claim such continental hegemony. Ahly’s erstwhile rivals Zamalek won the secondary Confederations Cup last year.
Sundowns were the last team not from north Africa to win the Champions League, in 2016, and South Africa’s Kaizer Chiefs reached the 2021 final.
Teams from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco dominate African football, but Ahly are not as imperious, haven’t won in their past three games and are missing key players Yahya Allah, Karim El Debes and Reda Selim for Friday’s game.
Ahly fans are frustrated with their board and coach. The team didn’t show for a recent league game against Zamalek because a foreign referee wasn’t selected – as they claim had been agreed. Three points were awarded to Zamalek and Ahly claimed they wouldn’t play the rest of the league campaign, before backtracking on their decision.
Ahly boast the best squad in African football but the quality on the pitch has left fans underwhelmed. It would have been even stronger if they’d signed winger Ahmed Mostafa "Zizo" from Zamalek, a story widely reported and talked about in Egypt.
This would be as significant in the country as Barcelona signing Vinicius Junior from Real Madrid or Manchester City signing Bruno Fernandes from Manchester United. Zizo would be the first player to switch between Egypt’s two biggest clubs since 2013.
Few believed the rumours that Zizo would sign for Ahly until he was spotted in the US embassy getting a visa – it was thought to travel with Ahly to the Club World Cup in June.
The player took to social media to say that he “does not respond to false information … to be clear I have not signed for any club, whether inside or outside Egypt.”
But his extended post left more questions than answers as he talked about the career of a footballer being a short one and that one must have obligations to family. He says he’s waiting on an offer from Zamalek and that he’s has overdue wages to be paid too.
“I’ve made it clear. I’m waiting until the end of the Confederation Cup before making any decisions,” he said. “I just want the conversation about my future to happen directly with the club, not through the media.”
Zamalek, the holders, excluded Zizo from their CAF Confederations Cup game, which they lost to South African side Stellenbosch.
Both Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns will be hoping to repeat that success of a South African side over an Egyptian one in Cairo on Friday, but it’ll be tough.
For Pyramids, this season represents more progress. They won the first stage of the domestic league, but yet another change in how the Egyptian top-flight functions means that counts for little, since the teams have now split into two groups of nine much like the Belgian league system.
The winners of the top nine will decide the eventual champions, but few doubt the continual improvement of Pyramids, who won their first trophy last season – the Egypt Cup – with a 1-0 victory over Zamalek.
Many in Egypt sneer at Pyramids and their lack of fans, but they’re run in a professional manner and have reached these semi-finals just a year after getting into the Champions League group stage for the first time.
Before that, they had reached the final of the secondary Confederations Cup in 2020, but they’re now a continental heavyweight in terms of their performances on the pitch, if not the size of their fanbase.
But, as the club’s CEO Mamdouh Eid told The National: “Around 30 million people live in this area, there is enough room for everyone. There is no doubt that there is room to grow in this area, to grow our fan base. The right way to do that is to keep our heads down, to keep working and have humility. I believe that ‘well done’ is better than ‘well said’.”
Becoming champions of Africa would bring Pyramids much more notice, but first they must overcome Orlando Pirates. And Ahly must settle themselves if they are to defeat Sundowns.
