Egypt men's national handball team

Egyptian Handball Federation old logo

Egypt's first appearance at the IHF World Championship was in 1964, where they failed to win a game. But since they were the first African team to participate at the tournament, and the fact that non-European teams were heavily underdeveloped back then, it was considered a major achievement.

After Egypt started developing their handball infrastructure, Egypt were able to qualify for the 1993 tournament at Sweden. They were able to win a game this time, against Czechoslovakia and were able to progress to the next round with this one win. In the second round, however, despite close matches against all three opponents – Romania, France and Switzerland (going as far as 26–27 with Romania) – Egypt failed to progress to the next stage.

Egypt's performance at the 1995 Championship is what raised Egypt to a respectable team. This time, Egypt won three matches at the first round, beating Brazil, Kuwait and Belarus.

The team was widely expected not to survive the knockout stage, but surprised the world by beating former World Champions Romania in the round of 16. While they were later beaten at the quarterfinals against Croatia, the team was highly praised back home. Handball continued to grow at Egypt and a rivalry formed between Egypt and Tunisia.

Egypt advanced to the quarterfinals every time between 1995 and 2001, arguably the golden age of Egyptian Handball. They also reached 6th place at the 1996 Olympics and 7th at 2000, their best Olympic placements. Egypt hosted the World Championship in 1999 for the first time, failing to reach the semi-finals after a loss against Russia.

In the 2001 IHF World Championship, Egypt beat Morocco, Portugal and Iceland, drew with Czechia and lost to Sweden. At the knockout stage, Egypt beat fellow Africans, Algeria. At the quarterfinals, where Egypt has been knocked out three times prior, Egypt faced Russia again, having their revenge after winning the close game 21–19. Egypt then became the first non-European team to reach the semi-finals. After losses against France and Yugoslavia, Egypt placed fourth. This was the best performance by a non-European team until it was equaled by Tunisia at 2005 and beaten by Qatar in 2015.

Between 2003 and 2017, Egypt qualified to every tournament save for the 2012 Olympics, but failed to impress, never advancing to the quarterfinals any time. Egypt broke this streak at the 2019 World Championship, where they placed eighth. Egypt then went on to host the first 32-team Handball Championship in 2021, finishing seventh after losing to reigning Olympic and World Champions, Denmark on penalties, who later won the tournament.

Egypt beat their rivals Tunisia in their own court, qualifying to the 2020 Olympics. They ended up fourth, being the first African team to ever play in the semifinals. They placed second in the group stage, after beating Portugal, Sweden, Bahrain and Japan, only losing to World Champions Denmark once again. They then made a surprisingly comfortable win against Germany in the quarterfinals, qualifying to the top 4. They then lost to France by a 4-goal margin, despite having had a 4-goal lead early on. They then lost a close game against Spain in the Bronze Medal match, placing 4th, their best performance at the Olympics.

Egyptian Handball Federation current logo

  Champions    Runners-up    Third place    Fourth place

Olympic Games

Games	Round	Position	PLD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936 Berlin	Did not enter
Handball Tournament not held from 1948 to 1968
1972 Munich- 1976 Montreal	Did not enter
1980 Moscow-1988 Seoul	Did not qualify
1992 Barcelona	Match for 11th place	11th of 12	6	1	0	5	119	137	-18
1996 Atlanta	Match for 5th place	6th of 12	6	3	0	3	139	132	+7
2000 Sydney	Match for 7th place	7th of 12	8	4	0	4	197	194	+3
2004 Athens	Match for 11th place	12th of 12	6	0	0	6	134	163	-29
2008 Beijing	Group stage	10th of 12	5	0	2	3	127	132	-5
2012 London	Did not qualify
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Group stage	9th of 12	5	1	1	3	129	143	-14
2020 Tokyo	Bronze Medal Match	4th of 12	8	5	0	3	239	218	+21
2024 Paris	To be determined
Total	7/14	0 Titles	44	14	3	27	1084	1119	-35

World Championship

Edition	Position	Pld	W	D	L
Germany 1938	Did not enter
Sweden 1954
Germany 1958
Germany 1961
Czechoslovakia 1964	14th	3	0	0	3
Sweden 1967	Did not enter
France 1970
East Germany 1974
Denmark 1978
Germany 1982
East Germany 1986
Czechoslovakia 1990
Sweden 1993	12th	7	1	0	6
Iceland 1995	6th	9	5	0	4
Japan 1997	6th	9	6	1	2
Egypt 1999	7th	9	6	0	3
France 2001	4th	9	5	1	3
Portugal 2003	15th	7	2	1	4
Tunisia 2005	14th	5	3	0	2
Germany 2007	17th	6	2	0	4
Croatia 2009	14th	9	4	0	5
Sweden 2011	14th	7	2	0	5
Spain 2013	16th	6	1	1	4
Qatar 2015	14th	6	2	1	3
France 2017	13th	6	3	0	3
/ Denmark/Germany 2019	8th	9	3	1	5
Egypt 2021	7th	7	4	2	1
/ Poland/Sweden 2023	To be determined
// Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025
Germany 2027
Total	16/30	114	49	7	58

• Dr. Hassan Moustafa- Current IHF President
• Egypt men's national junior handball team- Under-20 National team, 1-time World Champion
• Egypt men's national youth handball team- Under-18 National team, 1-time World Champion
• Egypt national beach handball team- 1-time World Champion

• Official website
• IHF profile