AFCON 2025: Pharaohs not strong enough to rule?
by Bradley Gibbs | by Tyler Doty
A less than impressive squad
Make no mistake about it, there is going to be an awful lot of talent on show in Morocco over the next few weeks. Many players that play week in, week out in the best leagues in the world will be involved, while some of the squads look as strong as they’ve ever been.
Unfortunately, compared to what some of the other nations have to offer, the Egyptian squad doesn’t exactly catch the eye for the right reasons.
There’s no way of getting around it, there’s simply a lack of top-tier talent in the current Egypt squad. Sure, Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush are top players that probably count for four or five run-of-the-mill Premier League players. However, are two players playing at the highest level domestically enough?
On the flipside, you could argue that Egypt’s lack of top-level players is a blessing in disguise. Could the lack of big egos help bring a togetherness that some other nations featuring more stars will struggle to find.
It’s also worth touching on the fact that lots of the players involved in Egypt squad, in fact most of them, play together (or against each other) at club level, with nearly all of the players plying their trade For Al Ahly, Pyramids or Zamalek, all of which operate in the Egyptian Premier League. This level of familiarity can definitely be seen as a positive, but will it be enough against the biggest and best that the tournament has to offer? I doubt it.
Link between Marmoush and Salah could be the key
Of course, when it comes to the Pharaohs, all eyes will be on Mohamed Salah, but the Liverpool man is now into the twilight of his career, and as important as he is, the captain cannot do it alone. Now is time to strike up a serious partnership with Man City’s Omar Marmoush, who is the other star of the show.
Blessed with blistering pace and the ability to be a real purple-patch scorer when on song, Marmoush is arguably the key to success for Egypt. If Salah and Marmoush can work in tandem, then there’s no reason why the Pharaohs cannot go far, but as mentioned above, there’s a glaringly obvious lack of star quality in the squad, which could be a big problem in the biggest games, so if the two Premier League players cannot strike up a partnership, then Egypt’s disappointing AFCON will likely continue.
Getting over the big-game hurdle
For the most part, the Egyptians are not easy to beat. They’re typically well drilled and comfortable both in and out of possession, while in general, they don’t concede too many goals, conceding more than once in just two of their last 13 fixtures.
Unfortunately, in big games, they don’t exactly score many goals, while they clearly find it tough to get over the line on the big occasion. At the previous African Cup of Nations, the Egyptians crumbled at the first knockout stage, going out to DR Congo.
Since their Round-of-16 exit at 2024 AFCON, Hossam Hassan has taken over as head coach, but it’s not as if much has changed. The Pharaoh’s are tricky to beat, sure, but they haven’t exactly improved offensively, while they look no more likely to go all the way at a big tournament. Of course, this is their first taste of tournament football under Hassan, but given that they’ve recently failed to beat the likes of Uzbekistan, Kuwait, UAE and Jordan, a first AFCON win since 2010 seems less than likely.
