Egypt national football team: full squad and key players

Egypt’s current squad is the first picked by Ali Maher, who was appointed head coach on 7 November after the Egyptian Football Association dismissed Hossam Hassan and his staff. Maher has named 26 players for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Malawi in Cairo on 13 November and in Lilongwe on 17 November. Mohamed Salah is captain, Mohamed El Shenawy and Trézéguet are back, and Modern Sport forward Mahmoud Mamdouh gets his first call-up.

Egypt’s squad for the Malawi qualifiers

The list runs four goalkeepers, nine defenders, nine midfielders and four forwards. Clubs are where each player is registered this season.

Player	Position	Club
Mohamed El Shenawy	GK	Al Ahly
Mostafa Shobeir	GK	Al Ahly
El Mahdy Soliman	GK	Zamalek
Mohamed Alaa	GK	Ceramica Cleopatra
Mahmoud Hamdy “El Wensh”	DF	Zamalek
Hossam Abdelmaguid	DF	Ludogorets Razgrad
Ramy Rabia	DF	Al Ain
Mohamed Abdelmonem	DF	Nice
Mahmoud Marei	DF	Pyramids
Mohamed Hany	DF	Al Ahly
Karim Hafez	DF	Pyramids
Ahmed Fatouh	DF	Zamalek
Tarek Alaa	DF	ZED, on loan from Pyramids
Marwan Attia	MF	Al Ahly
Mohanad Lasheen	MF	Pyramids
Mahmoud Saber	MF	Pyramids
Mohamed Shehata	MF	Zamalek
Nasser Maher	MF	Pyramids
Ibrahim Adel	MF	Nordsjaelland
Trézéguet	MF	Al-Riyadh
Ahmed Sayed Zizo	MF	Al Ahly
Haissem Hassan	MF	Celtic
Mohamed Salah (c)	FW	Trabzonspor
Omar Marmoush	FW	Tottenham, on loan from Man City
Hamza Abdelkarim	FW	Barcelona
Mahmoud Mamdouh	FW	Modern Sport

Who is in and who is out

Seven players are in who were not in the 24 Hassan named on 16 September: Mohamed El Shenawy, Mahmoud Hamdy “El Wensh”, Mahmoud Marei, Mohamed Shehata, Nasser Maher, Trézéguet and Mahmoud Mamdouh. El Shenawy, the first-choice goalkeeper at the World Cup, and Trézéguet, who is on exactly 100 caps, both missed the autumn games injured. Mamdouh was leading the Egyptian Premier League with eight goals when the squad was named.

Five of those 24 are not in it: Abdelaziz El-Balouty, Hamdy Fathy, Emam Ashour, Ali Mahmoud and Mostafa Ziko. Nor are Omar Fayed and Osama Faisal, who were added to the September squad later; Faisal played against South Sudan and South Africa. Hamdy Fathy is still injured, and Al Ahly midfielder Emam Ashour is left out for what the Egyptian press describe as technical reasons. Ziko scored in the 5-0 win in South Sudan and Ali Mahmoud made his debut against Angola. Abdelaziz El-Balouty was only called up in September because El Shenawy was injured.

Why Egypt changed coach

The federation’s board dismissed Hassan on 7 November, saying it had reviewed recent events and their effect on the team’s image and stability. It did not say which events it meant. FIFA had already banned Hassan and his twin brother Ibrahim, the team director, for three matches after the World Cup defeat by Argentina, which would have kept them out of both Malawi games and the March qualifier in Angola.

Maher, 52, comes from Ceramica Cleopatra and has also coached Smouha, ENPPI, Al Masry and Modern Sport. The Malawi games are his first in charge. Hassan had been in the job since February 2024 and took Egypt to the last 16 of the World Cup.

Salah is one goal short of Hossam Hassan’s record

Mohamed Salah has 68 goals in 122 appearances for Egypt. The national record is 69, held by Hossam Hassan, who scored them in 177 games between 1985 and 2006. A goal against Malawi would draw Salah level, and two in the double-header would make the record his.

He did not add to his total in the autumn. Hassan took him off on the hour in the goalless draw with Angola, and he played no part in the 5-0 win in South Sudan or the friendly against South Africa.

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 122.

These are the outfield players in the squad with 50 or more caps, as they stood after the friendly against South Africa on 4 October.

Player	Caps
Mohamed Salah	122
Trézéguet	100
Ahmed Sayed Zizo	70
Omar Marmoush	58
Ramy Rabia	52
Mohamed Hany	50

The gap is still the story of this squad. Salah has 68 international goals and Trézéguet 24; next comes Omar Marmoush, who scored twice in Juba to take his tally to 13.

Where Egypt’s players actually play

Seventeen of the 26 play their club football in Egypt. Al Ahly and Pyramids supply five each, Zamalek four, and Ceramica Cleopatra, ZED and Modern Sport one each.

The nine who play abroad are spread across nine different countries. Salah 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 Trézéguet in Saudi Arabia. No two of them share a league.

The midfield is where the domestic core shows most. Six of the nine midfielders play for Pyramids, Al Ahly or Zamalek, and Pyramids alone supply three of them: Mohanad Lasheen, Mahmoud Saber and Nasser Maher.

Key players

Mohamed Salah is the captain and the reason most people look up this squad. Thirty-four, one goal short of the national record, and playing his club football in Turkey for the first time.

Omar Marmoush is the most important of the rest: 58 caps and 13 goals, two of them in Juba in September. He is at Tottenham on loan from Manchester City.

Trézéguet is on exactly 100 caps and 24 goals, and returns from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the autumn games. Mohamed El Shenawy is back in goal after missing the same window.

Ahmed Sayed Zizo has 70 caps, the most of any Al Ahly outfield player in the squad. 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 played at the World Cup and scored his first goal for Egypt in the last minute in Juba.

Egypt’s results since the World Cup

Date	Match	Competition	Result
25 Sep	Egypt v Angola, Cairo	AFCON qualifier	D 0-0
29 Sep	South Sudan v Egypt, Juba	AFCON qualifier	W 5-0
4 Oct	Egypt v South Africa, Cairo	Friendly	L 0-1

In Juba, Mostafa Ziko opened the scoring after 36 minutes, Marmoush scored either side of an Ibrahim Adel goal, and Abdelkarim added the fifth in stoppage time. The friendly against South Africa was settled by a single South African goal six minutes after half-time, and it was Hassan’s last game in charge.

What comes next

Egypt lead Group B of qualifying after two games, level on four points with Angola but ahead on goal difference. Malawi are third on three points and South Sudan have none.

Date	Match	Venue	Kick-off (IST)
13 Nov	Egypt v Malawi	Cairo International Stadium	12.30am (14 Nov)
17 Nov	Malawi v Egypt	Bingu National Stadium, Lilongwe	6.30pm

The group finishes in March, with Egypt away to Angola and at home to South Sudan.

Egypt’s recent record

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.

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