Egypt national football team: full squad and key players

Egypt’s current squad is not the one that played at the World Cup. Hossam Hassan named 24 players on 16 September for the opening Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola and South Sudan, and four of the 26 who went to North America in June are not in it. Mohamed Salah captains the side, now from a Turkish club rather than an English one, and he arrives on the brink of a goalscoring record held by his own manager.

Egypt’s full squad for the AFCON qualifiers

The Egyptian Football Association’s list runs four goalkeepers, eight defenders, ten midfielders and two forwards. That grouping is the federation’s own, which is why Salah appears among the midfielders rather than the attack.

Player	Position	Club
Mostafa Shobeir	GK	Al Ahly
El Mahdy Soliman	GK	Zamalek
Mohamed Alaa	GK	Ceramica Cleopatra
Abdelaziz El-Balouty	GK	National Bank of Egypt
Mohamed Hany	DF	Al Ahly
Tarek Alaa	DF	ZED, on loan from Pyramids
Ramy Rabia	DF	Al Ain
Mohamed Abdelmonem	DF	Nice
Hossam Abdelmaguid	DF	Ludogorets Razgrad
Hamdy Fathy	DF	Al-Wakrah
Ahmed Fatouh	DF	Zamalek
Karim Hafez	DF	Pyramids
Marwan Attia	MF	Al Ahly
Mohanad Lasheen	MF	Pyramids
Mahmoud Saber	MF	Pyramids
Emam Ashour	MF	Al Ahly
Ahmed Sayed Zizo	MF	Al Ahly
Ali Mahmoud	MF	Al Ahly
Ibrahim Adel	MF	Nordsjaelland
Mostafa Ziko	MF	Pyramids
Haissem Hassan	MF	Celtic
Mohamed Salah	MF	Trabzonspor
Omar Marmoush	FW	Tottenham, on loan from Man City
Hamza Abdelkarim	FW	Barcelona

Who dropped out after the World Cup

Four players from the World Cup squad are missing. Mohamed El Shenawy, the first-choice goalkeeper on 77 caps, is injured, and Abdelaziz El-Balouty of National Bank of Egypt was called up in his place. Yasser Ibrahim is also injured, as is Trézéguet, who tore a hamstring playing for Al-Riyadh and faces four weeks out, leaving him stranded on exactly 100 international caps and 24 goals. Nabil Emad is the fourth absentee.

Ali Mahmoud, a 20-year-old attacking midfielder at Al Ahly, gets his first senior call-up. Marwan Attia is in the squad but suspended for the Angola match, carrying over a ban from the last Africa Cup of Nations.

Anyone consulting a squad list written before mid-September will therefore have four players who are no longer involved and two who are, which is worth knowing before you use one.

Salah is on the brink of a record held by his own coach

Mohamed Salah has 68 goals in 121 appearances for Egypt. The national record belongs to Hossam Hassan, who played 177 times between 1985 and 2006 and who has also, since February 2024, been the man who picks the team.

Hassan’s tally of 69 goals is the national record, one clear of Salah’s 68. A goal against Angola on 25 September would draw him level, with the record itself within reach soon after.

Salah’s own situation changed this summer as well. He left Liverpool after nine years, ending a spell that brought 257 goals in 442 appearances, two league titles and a Champions League, and signed a two-year deal with Trabzonspor in August as a free agent. He is 34. Egypt’s most-capped player remains Ahmed Hassan on 184, which is a long way beyond Salah’s 121.

Player	Caps	Goals
Mohamed Salah	121	68
Ahmed Sayed Zizo	67	5
Hamdy Fathy	67	4
Omar Marmoush	55	11
Ramy Rabia	49	6
Mohamed Hany	47	0
Ahmed Fatouh	42	1
Marwan Attia	40	1

The gap is the story of this squad. Salah has 68 international goals; the rest of the squad have a modest tally between them, headed by Marmoush’s 11.

Where Egypt’s players actually play

Fifteen of the 24 play their club football in Egypt. Al Ahly supply six of them, Pyramids four, Zamalek two, and Ceramica Cleopatra, National Bank of Egypt and ZED one each. For a side that has just come out of a World Cup last 16, that is a heavily domestic squad, and it is the opposite of the pattern at most African teams of comparable standing.

The nine who play abroad are spread across nine different countries. Salah is in Turkey, Marmoush in England, Hamza Abdelkarim in Spain, Haissem Hassan in Scotland, Ibrahim Adel in Denmark, Mohamed Abdelmonem in France, Hossam Abdelmaguid in Bulgaria, Ramy Rabia in the United Arab Emirates and Hamdy Fathy in Qatar. No two of them share a league.

The Al Ahly bloc is the part that matters tactically. Six players from one club, including the entire spine of Attia, Ashour and Zizo, means Hassan can field a midfield that trains together week to week, which is not something most international managers can call on.

Key players

Mohamed Salah is the captain and the reason most people look up this squad. Thirty-four, level with or one goal short of the national record depending on whose count you use, and playing his club football in Turkey for the first time.

Omar Marmoush is the most important of the rest. Fifty-five caps and 11 goals, and the only other forward in the squad with an established international record. He is at Tottenham on loan from Manchester City.

Emam Ashour and Ahmed Sayed Zizo run the midfield from Al Ahly, Zizo with 67 caps behind him. Mohamed Abdelmonem at Nice is the defender with the best club level outside the Egyptian league.

Hamza Abdelkarim is the one to watch. Born on 1 January 2008, he became the youngest player to appear for Al Ahly this century when he debuted at 17, joined Barcelona on loan in February 2026, and signed permanently in the summer. He has six caps and featured for Egypt at the World Cup.

Egypt’s recent record and what comes next

Egypt went to the 2026 World Cup and won a match at the tournament for the first time, beating New Zealand in the group stage. They then beat Australia on penalties before losing 3-2 to Argentina in the last 16, having led that match by two goals. It was the furthest they have gone at a World Cup.

The Africa Cup of Nations is the competition they actually own. Seven titles is more than any other nation has won, and ten final appearances, though the last of those titles came in 2010 at the end of three in a row, and at the 2025 edition in Morocco they reached the semi-finals and lost 1-0 to Senegal, Sadio Mané scoring in the 78th minute.

Three fixtures now follow in quick succession: Angola at the Cairo International Stadium on 25 September, South Sudan away in Juba on 29 September, and a friendly against South Africa back in Cairo on 4 October. Egypt are in Group B of qualifying with Angola, Malawi and South Sudan.

For squads from the rest of the 2026 World Cup field, we have the same breakdown for Senegal, the side that knocked Egypt out of the last Africa Cup of Nations, as well as Paraguay and Japan.

Browse more national team squad guides