The Pharaohs’ heartening journey at the U21 World Championship has come to an end, and what a journey it was! The Egyptian Under-21 national handball team was the only non-European team to win all of its group matches in 10 years.
The players made it to the semi-finals unbeaten, yet in their encounter with France, our team lost with a margin of just two points, securing third place in the competition. France built momentum on its win and went on to become world champions, beating Croatia in the final.
To determine who would finish in third-place, the Pharaohs faced Portugal, defeating them 37-27, securing the bronze medal.
Despite the loss, the Pharaoh’s had one hell of a ride, contrasting with their performance in the Men’s Junior World Championship in 2017, in which Egypt finished 17th. In these two years, the players worked hard on themselves to improve and surpass that and it certainly paid off.
The names of the heroes of our national team are as follows: Abdelrahman Taha, Abdelrahman Hameed, Galal Khorshid, Abdelaziz Ehab, Shehab Abdallah, Hassan Walid, Seif El Deraa, Ahmed Hesham, Ahmed Rady, Hazem Mamdouh, Mohsen Ramadan, Mohamed El Azhary, Omar Khaled, Omar Samy, Khaled Waleed, and Yasser Mohamed.
Despite the public’s fixation on football and our abrupt elimination from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, Egyptian athletes have been securing medals and titles in a myriad of other sports, and frankly, these champions are due for some recognition.