Zamalek SC Handball


Zamalek Handball Club, also called "Commandoz" commonly known as Zamalek H.C, or simply as Zamalek SC, is an Egyptian handball team based in Giza, Egypt. It is a part of the Zamalek SC multi sports club, and was founded on 1961. The club competes domestically in the Egyptian League and in the African Champions League It is the most successful handball club in Egypt and Africa with a record number of domestic and international titles.
Zamalek handball team can be considered the greatest team in Africa and the Middle East. one of the league's original teams, Zamalek play their home games at Abdulrahman Fawzi Hall. They play in the Egyptian Handball League without interruption since 1976. Zamalek is the most titled club in the Egyptian Handball Competitions with 46 titles. Also, the team has participated in African Champions League since 1979 and achieved the title 12 times. Zamalek has participated in IHF Super Globe 5 times in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2019, 2021 and Withdraw once in 2018. the team was qualified in 2002 but the CAHB decided qualify Fap Yaounde.
Zamalek is the 1st champion of the African Champions League in its first edition, which began in 1979, 1st Champion of the African Cup Winners' Cup in its first edition, which began in 1985, 1st Egyptian team to win the African Super Cup in 2002, 1st Champion of the Egyptian Cup in its first edition, which began in 1979, Most African teams qualified to in the IHF Super Globe, Only team to win all local championships, league and Cup, Super Cup, Pro Super Cup, Excellence Cup, and league championship without international players. Most successful team in the Egyptian Cup with 16 titles, Most successful team in the Egyptian Super Cup, Most successful team in the Egyptian Cup of Excellence, Achieved a record by winning 6 titles in one season in 2002, 1st Team to retain the African Cup forever after winning it 1979, 1980, 1981. retain Another the African Cup forever after winning it in 2017, 2018, and 2019. It is the most successful team in the African Champions League, 1st Egyptian team to win a continental handball championship, 1st Egyptian and Arab team to win a continental championship in hall games, Most handball team in Africa and the world to achieve continental titles in the 21st century with 18 continental titles. Most Egyptians team in all other games achieve continental titles with 26 continental titles.
Zamalek is the first team in the world who won Triple, three trophies in a single season, 1978–79. Zamalek is the only African sports club to have become the African champions in both football and handball in the same season, 1986, 2002. Zamalek is the only Egyptian team that achieved 3 African trophies in the same season. 2nd African team that won the Champions League and Winner's Cup in the same season. 3rd Most titled club in the world with international trophies with 26 titles, Ahead of famous German clubs. Zamalek also had a local record by achieving a record of 85 consecutive wins without defeat from 2006–07 to 2009–10.

History

Beginnings: 1958–1961

The handball journey in Zamalek SC started in 1958. At that time, handball was not a popular sport in Egypt as it is now. The credit for the popularity of handball in Egypt goes to Dr. Mohamed Fadali, one of the legends of Zamalek SC, who introduced the game of handball for the first time in the programs of the Higher Institute of Physical Education for teachers in Cairo in 1938 and issued many publications explaining the basic principles of the game, its laws, and rules of practice. He was also the founder of the Egyptian, Arab and African handball federations and the first president of the Egyptian Handball Federation. Zamalek participated in the Giza region league and the first edition of the Republic Championship in 1958, which has now become the Egyptian Handball League. With coach Hanafi Nassar, who was the first coach of Zamalek handball in 1958, for the men's team, the women's team and the junior team at the same time, and a group of young players, Zamalek aspired to create a generation that would participate and dominate local and continental championships in the future, the building of a strong team began in the 1960s by buying players from other clubs and relying on the club's youth system.

First achievement: 1962–1976

Hanafi Nassar had his beginnings in sports when he was a football player in the Khedive School as a goalkeeper. He was a personal friend of Alaa Al-Hamouli, one of the legends of Zamalek SC, who helped him play football at Zamalek in 1952, Hanafi Nassar played under-18s football in the juniors team and played many times in friendly matches, and was a reserve for Zamalek goalkeeper, at that time, Aldo Stella, but he did not continue the practice of football because of his love for handball and his attachment to it and his influence on it. The credit goes to the founder of handball in Egypt, Dr. Mohamed Fadali, who in 1957 played a handball game in Zamalek, but he did not continue to play handball. As he made his biggest achievements in what he did after that in the field of training and him building generations of handball players and spreading the game of handball in Egypt. Due to his love, passion for coaching in which he excelled, it made him the pioneer of this game in Egypt. He used to go to different places to discover talented players in order to form strong teams for Zamalek handball. 1962–63 season, Zamalek won the first handball championship in the history of the club, Zamalek won the Giza region league for men, juniors, and women in the same season with coach Hanafi Nassar, who became the first coach to win a title with Zamalek handball teams, the men first team, women first team and the junior team. The first generation of the men's first handball team at Zamalek SC: Farouk Abdel-Gawad, Talaat Farid, Muhammad Wafiq, Mahmoud Khairat, Ahmed Askar, Hamid Mujib Abu Hadid, Mohamed Seoudi, Namiq Jaafar, Abdo Farag, Hanafi Riyad, Medhat Al-Masry, Mohamed Afifi, Nabil Sobhi, Khaled Khattab, Saif Farajallah, Sayed Abdel-Aal, Mustafa Al-Duwaini, Hamdi Al-Sayed, Mounir Gerges, Abdel-Moati Youssef. The first generation of the women's handball team at Zamalek SC: Samira Burhan, Amal Al-Fayoumi, Mona Gabr, Hikmat Daoud, Magda Qassem, Azza Nassef, Khadija Nassir, Suhair Saleh, Hana Ibrahim, Tayseer Mustafa, Nadia Samir. Hanafi Nassar would also pay with his own money when needed to form strong teams for Zamalek. 1st Egyptian Handball League title in the club's history in 1976–77 season, Zamalek won the league and the 1st Domestic Competitions in the history of the club, with coach Mohamed Tawfiq Al-Welily and the league's top scorer Gamal Hussein, who scored 113 goals.

Triple crown: 1979

1978–79 season, in which Zamalek won 3 historical titles, the treble, that Zamalek achieved by winning the Egyptian League, Egyptian Cup in the 1st edition, and the African Champions League in the 1st edition. Zamalek became the 1st Team in the World Achieve a three titles in one season, Zamalek players and administrators who achieved the triple, Alaa Salah, Hassan Sakr, Saad Selim, Ismail Mohamed Ali, Mansour Sadek, Medhat El-Beltagy, Tarek Anis; the administrators: Saeed Abdel Razzaq, Dr. Abdullah George Saad, Dr. Jamal Hamadeh, Ayoub Debes, Ezz El Matarawy, Osama Gomaa, Tariq Jibril, Mamdouh Hashem, Hussein Labib. with This talents promised a good future and with coach Kamal Darwish, who was armed with great knowledge gained Everything was done ambitiously and after all the obstacles were overcome and the fiercest opponents were defeated in 1979. Zamalek under the technical leadership of coach Dr. Kamal Darwish became the 1st club ever to win the Egypt Handball Cup and the African Handball Champions League, and won the 2nd Egyptian Handball League title in the club's history, Kamal Darwish became the 1st Egyptian and African coach to win 3 titles in one season.

Golden era: 1980s

From 1979 to the 1980s was the first golden era of Zamalek in handball, Kamal Darwish continued to lead Zamalek towards continental and local titles. 1979–80 season, Zamalek won the Egyptian Handball Cup title for the 2nd time in a row, and the African Handball Champions League for the 2nd time in a row, after winning the final match against Nadit Alger. In the 1980–81 season, Zamalek won the 3rd African Handball Champions League title in a row, after winning the final match against ASC Diaraf. After winning the African Handball Champions League in 1981, Zamalek retained the championship cup for life, after winning it three times in a row in 1979, 1980, and 1981, in that season, with coach Kamal Darwish as well, Zamalek repeated the feat of the 1978–79 season and for the 2nd time won three titles in one season, Egyptian Handball League for the 3rd time in the club's history, the Egypt Handball Cup for the 3rd time in the club's history, and the African Handball Champions League, with Dr. Kamal Darwish as coach: Esmat Saudi, Hossam Haroun, Hussein Labib, Tariq Anis, Abdel Rahman Al-Bohy, Tariq Jibril, Hassan Saqr, Mustafa al-Ahmar, Saad Selim, Ayoub Debes, Alaa Nasser, Kamal Abdel Razek. 1982 to 1986 the golden era of Zamalek in handball continued. Zamalek started to dominate the local championships, from 1982–83 to the 1985–86 season, Zamalek won 7 championships, 5 local championships, and 2 continental championships. In this period, Zamalek won 2 Egyptian Handball League titles in 1982–83, 1984–85, winning a total of 5 Egyptian Handball League titles in the history of the club, and 3 Egypt Handball Cup titles in 1982, 1983 and 1986, becoming the most successful club in the Egyptian Handball Cup with 6 titles. In 1985, Zamalek won the African Handball Cup Winners' Cup in the 1st edition after defeating Al Ahly in the final, raising the total number of continental championships to 4. In 1986, Zamalek won the African Handball Champions League for the 4th time, after winning the final match against Inter Club Brazzaville. Zamalek ended the 1980s era achieving a total of 12 titles in it, 3 Egyptian Handball League titles, 5 Egypt Handball Cup titles, 4 African Champions League titles, and 1 African Handball Cup Winners’ Cup title, this generation of players and this era is considered the golden era in the history of Zamalek handball and the history of Egyptian and African handball. Zamalek were African champions for 5 times out of 10 participants in the Confederation of African Handball. Zamalek Handball players in the 1980s and some of them were honored and awarded the Sports Order of the Republic by the President of Egypt, at the time Muhammad Anwar El-Sadat. To make the Zamalek fans proud of their players, who their made history in Arab and African handball.