Egypt Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Egypt
Wondering what sports the Egyptians like to play?
Discover everything about the most popular sports in Egypt in this post. ⚽️
The Most Popular Egyptian Sports
Find below Egypt national sports, ranked by popularity:
| Rank | Sport |
|---|---|
| 1 | Football |
| 2 | Basketball |
| 3 | Squash |
| 4 | Handball |
| 5 | Tennis |
| 6 | Fighting sports |
| 7 | Roller hockey |
So there you have them, the most popular sports in Egypt! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Egypt.
What is the National Sport of Egypt?
The national sport of Egypt is football. Similar to many other countries, Egyptians are absolute fans of football. Everyone in the country loves to watch local and national teams clash together, and they also appreciate playing the game. The streets of Cairo are usually filled with children playing together.
Learn More About Egypt Popular Sports
Egypt is an Arab country located in both northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia through the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by Palestine, Israel, Sudan, and Libya, and its capital city is Cairo, which counts more than 10,025,000 inhabitants (but more than 21,147,000 if you include the metropolitan area!).
An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all of Egypt popular sports, and I hope you will love them:
Football
Like in most countries around the world, football is by far the most popular sport in Egypt.
Both national clubs and the national team are supported on a daily basis by Egyptians. The most successful clubs in the country are Al Ahly and Zamalek, both located in Cairo. The other notable teams are Ismaily, Al-Masry, Al Ittihad, and Pyramids FC.
There is a national professional league, called the Egyptian Premier League, in which 18 teams compete throughout the year. It was founded in 1948.
Famous Egyptian Football players: Mohamed Salah, Mohamed Elneny, Ahmed Elmohamady, Mohamed Aboutrika, Essam El Hadary, Mohamed Zidan, Hossam Hassan, Ahmed Hassan
Basketball
The second most popular sport in Egypt is basketball.
Nothing can dethrone football in Egypt, that is for sure, but what comes closest to it is definitely basketball. In fact, in the Middle East and Africa, the Egyptian national basketball team is historically the best: they hold the record for best performance at the FIBA Basketball World Cup and at the Summer Olympics.
Egypt was also the only African country to ever host a FIBA World Cup, though it was the Under-19 edition. At the official African Championship, “the Pharaohs” won a grand total of 16 medals!
Famous Egyptian Basketball players: Abdel Nader, Alaa Abdelnaby, Assem Marei, Rami Ghanem, Mohamed Abelaal, Shadi Nafea, Ziad El Tobgy, Magdy Abou-Ahmed
Squash
The third most popular sport in Egypt is squash.
As surprising as this sounds, squash, which is not very popular around the world, is one of the most famous sports in Egypt.
This is mostly due to the fact that the country is an absolute powerhouse. Ever since the 1930s, Egypt has dominated worldwide championships: 5 out of the top 10 male players and 5 out of the top 10 women players in the world are Egyptian. 5 Egyptian men were world number one at some point, and 2 Egyptian women. Also, many professional squash tournaments take place in Egypt every year.
Famous Egyptian Squash players: Ali Farag, Nour El Sherbini, Mohamed El Shorbagy, Ramy Ashour, Amr Shabana, Raneem El Weleily, Nour El Tayeb, Tarek Momen, Karim Abdel Gawad
Handball
The fourth most popular sport in Egypt is handball. The Egyptian Handball Federation oversees everything related to handball in the country, especially the Egyptian national handball team.
Not only is handball popular in the country, but Egypt has been one of the most successful African handball teams, alongside Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Angola.
There were 2 golden generations in Egyptian handball: from 1991 to 2001, and from 2019 to nowadays. The first one was the first-ever non-European team to reach the semifinals in the World Championships, and the current one became the first African team to reach the semifinals at the Olympic Games.
Famous Egyptian Handball players: Ahmed El-Ahmar, Abdelrahman Abdou, Hassan Moustafa, Mohammad Sanad, Mohamed Hashem, Mamdouh Abouebaeid, Mohamed Abdel Mohamed
Tennis
The fifth most popular sport in Egypt is tennis.
Generally speaking, tennis is often overlooked in many poor countries, because it is usually mostly for the upper and upper-middle classes. Egypt is no exception to that, and while the sport could be more popular, it is still much appreciated.
The best Egyptian tennis player was probably Ismail El Shafei. He turned pro in 1968 and is one of the only 4 players who beat Björn Borg at Wimbledon. Now, he is the president of the Egyptian Tennis Federation and a member of the board of directors of the International Tennis Federation.
Famous Egyptian Tennis players: Ismail El Shafei, Jaroslav Drobný, Adli El Shafei II, Adli El Shafei, Tamer El-Sawy, Amr Ghoneim, Aly El Dawoudi, Ibrahim Badreldin-Sayed
Fighting sports
The sixth most popular sport in Egypt is fighting sports.
The most famous ones are weightlifting, boxing, and wrestling. These sports used to be much higher on the list, but they are now on the decline. There was a golden age for Egyptian fighting sports, during the 1930s and the 1940s when they won several Olympic and world championship medals. The country was a true powerhouse in fighting sports.
With the worldwide rise in popularity of mixed martial arts, maybe Egypt will come back to its old strength?
Famous Egyptian Fighting sports players: Mohamed Ali Rashwan, Karam Gaber, Hesham Mesbah, Ahmed Elbiali, Mohamed Aly, Houssam Abdin, Ramadan Yasser, Mohamed El-Sayed
Roller hockey
The seventh and final most popular sport in Egypt is roller hockey. While roller hockey is not that popular in Egypt, it is still the seventh most played and watched sport in the country.
There are both local and national teams. The best national clubs are probably Al-Zamalek sporting club and Nasr-City sporting club. When it comes to international competition, the Egyptian national team did not win any tournament for now.
Also, there are only 10 teams in the country.
Famous Egyptian Roller hockey players: Ahmed Saad, Moustafa Wahid, Mohamed Ihab, Karim Abokahla, Mohamed Selim, Mohamed Abdelalim, Gaber Mohamed, Ahmed Gaber
So there you have them, these were all the most popular sports in Egypt. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.
In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:
More Sport Facts!
Loved these Egypt sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?
Then check out these posts:
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