When you’re used to caviar, it can be difficult to get used to eating cheeseburgers again. For many Pharaohs supporters, this change in diet was hard to live with. The most successful nation in the history of CAN (7 victories), Egypt experienced a true golden age at the start of the 21st century. A historic hat-trick, emotions galore, memorable matches… Between 2006 and 2010, the memory box of Egyptian fans was copiously stocked. So much so that the decline started by the selection is badly experienced by many followers, including Sofiane, regular contributor to Our Masrthe only independent media covering Egyptian football news in France.
This 28-year-old Franco-Egyptian grew up thrilled by the exploits of the Pharaons, winners of three consecutive CANs in 2006, 2008 and 2010. “My first memory is 2006. There was a bar opposite my primary school which broadcast CAN matches,” says the native of Paris, who grew up in the 18th arrondissement. “I was coming out of school and I could see the matches directly. At the time, the CAN was much less accessible than today, it was very complicated to get the channels. I went to cafes to follow the matches, I sat down, I had a mint diabolo.”
Then aged around ten, he developed a passion for Mohamed Aboutrika and his gang, feared by the entire African continent.
“Football, almost a religion in Egypt”
“It was the heyday, we terrorized all the teams, it was carnage,” he remembers. “The question was not whether we would win, but how much. When we faced Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana… I just wondered if we were going to put them 2.3 or 4 to 0. We already knew that we were going to win the CAN because the level was incredible,” remembers Sofiane, bitten by the football bug like his whole family. “We watched all the matches with my father. Football is almost like a religion in Egypt. Everyone follows the national team,” he explains.
A passion that he has never lost despite the disillusionments experienced by the giant of the continent, which has been chasing its first trophy for 15 years now and has been beaten twice in the final, in 2017 against Cameroon (2-1) then in 2021 against Senegal (0-0 + 4-2 tab).
Eager to put his country’s football at the forefront, he joined the adventure Our Masr in 2019 and contributes to the development of the account to 12,000 subscribers on X. A great success considering the small Egyptian diaspora in France. “In Europe, you are more likely to find Egyptians in England or Italy,” he confides. “In general, those who come to France do not have the plan to settle down in the long term and make a life there. The integration process is different compared to that of Algerians, Moroccans… For Egyptians, it is rather we come, we work then we leave as soon as we have money to do something in the country ».
So, alongside five associates including two English speakers, Sofiane is responsible for sharing the news of Mohamed Salah, Omar Marmoush and others on social networks. Their activity will inevitably strengthen as a new CAN approaches, the fourth covered by Our Masr. And the least we can say is that our supporter is not confident about the Pharaohs.
“We can aim for the quarter-finals, no more”
“I just hope we get eliminated in a decent way,” he says. “I don’t see a world where we even get to the final. I just want to avoid being humiliated,” he admits, the memory of the defeat against DR Congo in the round of 16 of the 2024 edition still fresh in his mind. “When we compare ourselves to certain teams like Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria… We can aim for the quarter-finals, no more,” he imagines.
Disappointed by the work of coach Hossam Hassan – “he ruins all our hopes” -, to whom he reproaches the absence of a well-defined “paw”, Sofiane describes a very pessimistic climate in the country in the run-up to the CAN in Morocco, which will see Egypt challenge South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe in the group stage. “At the moment the state of mind of all Egyptians is a little: quickly that we are eliminated to move on and stop the massacre ».
Despite the doubts, the Pharaohs have still quite quietly validated their first qualification for the World Cup since 2018. But the very difficult start to the season at Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool is not likely to reassure the followers of the selection. “He is heating up the bench more and more, his relationship with Hossam Hassan is not very good…” explains Sofiane, describing an increasingly divided opinion about him.
“The Salah case is so complex… Many Egyptians hate him because he did not take a position on this or that geopolitical conflict, because they say he forgot where he came from… In addition, there is this preconceived idea that if you do not win the CAN, you cannot be considered a legend of African football. Many of us are resigned, thinking that he is cursed and that he will never win her. » It is up to Salah to make the predictions lie. And to make a whole people vibrate again.
