The Egypt men's national handball team is the national handball team of Egypt, which represents Egypt in international matches. It is supervised by the Egyptian Handball Federation. Egypt was the first non-European team to reach the semifinals of the World Championships, and the first African team to reach the semifinals in the Olympic tournament. Egypt national team has now the record of the most African Championships tied with Tunisia.
Egypt men handball team is widely regarded as the finest handball team in Africa.
History Egypt's first appearance at the IHF World Championship was in 1964, where they failed to win a single game.
After Egypt started developing their handball infrastructure, Egypt qualified for the 1993 tournament at Sweden. They were able to win a game this time, against Czechoslovakia and they were able to qualify to the second round.
Egypt's performance at the 1995 Championship rose Egypt to a respectable team. Egypt won all three matches in the first round, beating Brazil, Kuwait and Belarus. The team was widely expected not to survive the knockout stage, but beat four-time World Champions Romania in the round of 16. While they were later beaten at the quarterfinals against Croatia, the team was praised back home.
Egypt advanced to the quarterfinals every time between 1995 and 2001. They also reached 6th place at the 1996 Olympics and 7th at 2000. 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 the Czech Republic 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, winning the close game 21–19. 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 in 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 quarterfinal. Egypt broke this streak at the 2019 World Championship, where they placed eighth. Egypt then went on to host the first 32-team Championship in 2021, finishing seventh after losing to reigning World Champions, Denmark on penalties, who later won the tournament.
Egypt beat their rivals Tunisia in their own court, qualifying to the 2020 Olympics. In the group stage, Egypt finished 2nd, after beating Portugal, Sweden, Bahrain and Japan, and losing to World Champions Denmark once again. They then won against Germany in the quarterfinals, progressing to the semifinals. They lost to France by a 4-goal margin, despite having had a 4-goal lead early on. In the Bronze Medal match, Egypt lost to Spain, placing 4th overall.
At the 2026 African Men's Handball Championship in Rwanda, Egypt secured its 10th continental title. In the final held on January 31, 2026, Egypt defeated Tunisia with a score of 37–24. This victory allowed Egypt to equal the Tunisian record for the most championships in the history of the competition.
Competitive record
Summer OlympicsGamesRoundPosition 1936 BerlinDid not enterHandball Tournament not held from 1948 to 1968 1972 MunichDid not enter 1976 Montreal 1980 Moscow 1984 Los Angeles1988 Seoul 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 LondonDid 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 3 239 220 +19 2024 Paris Quarter finals 5th of 12 6 3 1 2 176 169 +7 2028 Los AngelesTBD 2032 BrisbaneTotalQualified: 8/15501742912601290−30
IHF World Men's Handball ChampionshipGamesRoundPosition 1938 Germany Did not enter 1954 Sweden 1958 East Germany 1961 West Germany 1964 Czechoslovakia Preliminary round 15th of 16 3 0 0 3 28 58 −30 1967 Sweden Did not enter 1970 France 1974 East Germany 1978 Denmark 1982 West Germany 1986 Switzerland 1990 Czechoslovakia 1993 Sweden Match for 11th place 12th of 16 7 1 0 6 148 164 −16 1995 Iceland Match for 5th place 6th of 24 9 5 0 4 211 214 −3 1997 Japan Match for 5th place 6th of 24 9 6 1 2 220 186 +34 1999 Egypt Match for 7th place 7th of 24 9 6 0 3 230 214 +16 2001 France Bronze Medal Match 4th of 24 9 5 1 3 207 206 +1 2003 Portugal Second round 15th of 24 7 2 1 4 177 197 −20 2005 Tunisia Preliminary round 14th of 24 5 3 0 2 123 123 0 2007 Germany Match for 17th place 17th of 24 6 2 0 4 168 173 −5 2009 Croatia Match for 13th place 14th of 24 9 4 0 5 218 239 −21 2011 Sweden Match for 13th place 14th of 24 7 2 0 5 172 193 −21 2013 Spain Round of 16 16th of 24 6 1 1 4 156 154 +2 2015 Qatar Round of 16 14th of 24 6 2 1 3 151 148 +3 2017 France Round of 16 13th of 24 6 3 0 3 157 164 −7/ 2019 Denmark/Germany Match for 7th place 8th of 24 9 3 1 5 241 250 −9 2021 Egypt Quarter finals 7th of 32 7 4 2 1 222 185 +37/ 2023 Poland/Sweden Match for 7th place 7th of 32 9 6 0 3 272 233 +39// 2025 Croatia/Denmark/Norway Quarter finals 5th of 32 7 5 0 2 216 183 +33 2027 Germany Qualified/ 2029 France/GermanyTBD// 2031 Denmark/Iceland/NorwayTotalQualified: 19/301306086233173284+33
African Men's Handball ChampionshipGamesRoundPosition 1974 Tunisia Did not enter 1976 AlgeriaDisqualified 1979 People's Republic of the Congo Final Runners-up 1981 Tunisia Bronze Medal Match 4th of 8 5 3 0 2 1983 Egypt Bronze Medal Match 4th of 10 6 3 0 3 1985 Angola Bronze Medal Match 4th of 9 6 3 0 3 118 123 −5 1987 Morocco Final Runners-up 5 2 1 2 82 90 −8 1989 Algeria Final Runners-up 4 3 0 1 89 81 +8 1991 Egypt Final Champions 6 6 0 0 123 61 +62 1992 Ivory Coast Final Champions 4 4 0 0 1994 Tunisia Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 9 5 4 0 1 1996 Benin Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 10 6 4 0 2 146 112 +34 1998 South Africa Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 10 6 5 0 1 210 117 +93 2000 Algeria Final Champions 6 6 0 0 175 100 +75 2002 Morocco Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 5 4 0 1 142 106 +36 2004 Egypt Final Champions 7 7 0 0 250 147 +103 2006 Tunisia Final Runners-up 6 5 0 1 184 129 +55 2008 Angola Final Champions 5 5 0 0 152 117 +35 2010 Egypt Final Runners-up 7 6 0 1 208 144 +64 2012 Morocco Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 8 6 1 1 239 161 +78 2014 Algeria Bronze Medal Match 3rd of 12 8 6 0 2 217 166 +51 2016 Egypt Final Champions 8 8 0 0 233 139 +94 2018 Gabon Final Runners-up 7 6 0 1 213 164 +49 2020 Tunisia Final Champions 7 7 0 0 237 152 +85 2022 Egypt Final Champions 5 5 0 0 176 109 +67 2024 Egypt Final Champions 6 6 0 0 198 121 +77 2026 RwandaFinal Champions 7 7 0 0 290 166 +124TotalQualified: 25/2714512122236822505+1177
All-Africa Games 1965 – 1973 – 1987 – 1991 – 1995 – 1999 – 2003 – 2007 – 2011 – 2015 – 2019 – 2023 –
Mediterranean Games 1979 – 6th 1991 – 1993 – 4th 1997 – 6th 2005 – 5th 2013 – 2022 – 2026 –
Unofficial tournaments MENA Games 1961 – 1965 – 1992 – 1999 – 2007 – 2011 –
Islamic Solidarity Games 2005 –
Team Current squad Roster for the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship.
Head coach: Xavier Pascual Fuertes
Notable former coaches Zoran Živković Irfan Smajlagić David Davis Roberto García Parrondo Juan Carlos Pastor
See also Dr. Hassan Moustafa Egypt men's national under-21 handball team Egypt men's national under-19 handball team Egypt men's national under-17 handball team Egypt men's national beach handball team Egypt national wheelchair handball team
References
External links
IHF profile