Egypt’s All-Star American Football Team Dominates Debut Game

Multimedia Journalism and Theater sophomore Ahmed Tarek made the cut to be the only AUCian on the Egyptian Pharaohs American Football Team in their debut international match at the New Giza Club on November 2.

The Pharaohs overpowered the highly athletic Falcons team from the Emirates American Football League (EAFL) defeating them 30-6.

“I am extremely proud that I am representing my university, although I don’t play in the [AUC] Titans team, I am still the only AUCian player on the Pharaohs team,” said Tarek, an offensive lineman.

He says that it is a great opportunity for Egypt to host such a game and to be able to win with a team comprised of Egyptian players from local universities.

The game was the first international meet for the Egyptian team, held almost four years after the formation of The Egyptian Federation of American Football (EFAF).

The Pharaohs opened the scoring with a three-point punt from defence player Seif Al Din Khaled. Shortly after, offence player Seif Sweilam scored a magnificent touchdown worth six points, and was followed by another touchdown from offence player Omar Mansy, who made two touchdowns in the first two quarters (first half) to end the score 23-6.

At the beginning of the third quarter in the second half, offence player Youssef Zaitoun dominated the field by scoring a 70+ yards completion to finish with yet another touchdown for the team.

Quarterback Mohamed Sadek was awarded the most valuable player (MVP) award for his outstanding performance in the game.

The German University in Cairo’s Inspire Club hosted the international friendly.

“Inspire aims to encourage students to practice sports on a regular basis and provide them with sports events throughout the year,” Ahmed Zaki, Inspire president,  told The Caravan.

The Pharaohs team was picked out from the current eight teams in the Egyptian League. Through the tryouts, the coaching team eliminated players until they reached the final squad of 40 players.

At the age of 28, Mohy Omar was chosen to be the Pharaohs’ head coach.

“I think I was chosen because of my track record. I have been the first full-time coach and I have isolated myself completely from playing games. I dedicated myself to coaching, and thankfully I had a good winning streak,” Omar told The Caravan.

Omar explained that the preparations for the match were extensive and spanned a long period of time. The coaches chose the most qualified players of the existing eight American Football teams in Egypt, and organized extensive camps for a month-and-a-half before the game.

Pearse explained that the match was a great experience for the Falcons team, especially because it was their first international game.

He added that they were very happy when they received the match invitation, and that the team hopes for more opportunities and challenges in the future.

The  EFAF was founded in December 2014 and it now has over 700 registered players.

These players come from different universities, ages, majors and even cities, which adds diversity into the game.

The game is also known to be a male dominated sport. However, in Egypt, there are female based teams which compete in the flag football league, which further shows the diversity of the sport in Egypt.

AUC has its own American football team, The AUC Titans, which competes with seven other teams. However, the Titans have never won the league before, whereas the GUC Eagles have a record in winning the league, as it has the most number of league wins in the history of the game in Egypt.

The Titans have recently launched an American Flag Football club on campus in an attempt to encourage female students to join the team and enlarge the American Football community on campus.

On November 9, the female flag football team started playing at the New Cairo club, with the heavily competitive eight teams and it will continue for seven solid weeks. The male teams’ league will start next February.

Several sports figures attended the game. The Assistant Minister of Sports, Ahmed Gomaa, attended the match to support the Egyptian team.

“This match is a positive event for the sport in Egypt as it is a good initiative to host the UAE team here, and to be able to beat them”, General Manager of EFAF, Omar Ashraf told The Caravan.