The current summer is witnessing a great conflict between the two most popular football teams in Egypt: Al-Ahly SC and Al-Zamalek SC.
Each club is doing its best to acquire as many football players as it can, bearing in mind that the football teams’ performances have declined lately.
Al-Ahly’s performance in the African competitions has been poor, with the team exiting the Champions League. Also, Al-Zamalek suffered a sudden loss to South Africa’s Sundowns, losing 2-1. This loss came before the team returned home to win the national cup against its most competitive rival, Al-Ahly.
Here are the most recent deals of Al-Zamalek. All deals made by the team were national.
Under the presidency of Mortada Mansour, the club signed the duo Osama Ibrahim and Mohamed Nassef, both of whom belonged to ENPPI club.
The acquisition of Ibrahim cost the club EGP 1m for five years, which is the cheapest deal of the season. The deal for Nassef cost the club EGP 1.3m.
Al-Zamalek will also acquire Mohamed El-Abid for EGP 2m. El-Abid will give up his dues to ENPPI, which amount EGP 500,000.
From Misr Makasa SC, Al-Zamalek signed with Mohamed Mosaad, Mahmoud Abdel Aty, and Hosny Fathy, the left-back. The deals for the three of them cost a total of EGP 9m.
Mosaad was Misr Makasa’s wing. He was also lent to Al-Masry SC for a season, before he officially announced that he is moving to Al-Zamalek for four seasons.
Abdel Aty, known as “Donga”, presented a wonderful season before moving to Al-Zamalek, a move that can be attributed to his eye-catching performance.
Al-Zamalek signed with a number of players from other Egyptian clubs: Shouky Al-Said from Ismaily SC, Salah Rico from Ittihad El–Shorta, and Aly Fathy from El Mokawloon SC. The price of these deals have not been announced yet.
Al-Zamalek’s biggest competitor, Al-Ahly, recently gave up two of its star players. Malick Evouna was traded to the Chinese club Tianjin for $8m (around EGP 80m), and Ramadan Sobhy was traded to the English club Stoke City, for €6m (around EGP 60m).
The money acquired through these transactions allowed Al-Ahly to choose new players, including Mohamed El-Shenawi, Petrojet’s goalkeeper, and Marawan Mohasen, in deals that cost EGP 3m and EGP 10m respectively.
Al-Ahly is keen to sign with Misr Makasa’s Mido Gaber, in a deal that may reach EGP 10m.
Al-Ahly is also trying to convince Sam Vokes, the star of Wales’ national team, to join the club. This deal won’t be less than $1m annually (around EGP 10m).
Arab clubs were not excluded from Al-Ahly’s plans. However, the deal to sign with Aly Maelol, from the Tunisian club of CS Sfaxien, is still not settled. This deal would cost the club millions of US dollars.
