Egypt made history on Sunday after beating Germany 32-28 in the final of the Men’s U-19 World Handball Championship, to be the first non-European team to clinch the precious title. Immediately after the match, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi congratulated the Egyptian players on social media, praising their heroic performance throughout the tournament.
This dream team reached the final for the first time too following a 41-36 victory over Portugal in the semi-finals. Egypt were leading throughout the match and had a comfortable advantage at half-time (19-14), but Germany pulled off a great comeback and made it a tense second half.
The U-19 Men’s World Championship was the eighth edition of the tournament, held from 6 to 18 August in Skopje, North Macedonia.
It has been a victorious year for Egyptians as the new achievement was a step further than the earlier winning of Egypt’s U-21 team of the bronze medal at the 2019 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in July after beating Portugal 37-27 in the third-place playoff.
The International Handball Federation revealed this year Men’s Youth World Championship All-star Team which included players representing five different nations – and three who also won the bronze medal with Egypt at the 2019 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, as well as the gold winners of the North Macedonia tournament.
The team includes Germany’s Alexander Reimann as left wing, Egypt’s Hassan Walid Ahmed as Left back, Lauritz Reinholdt Leger of Denmark as centre back, Portugal’s right back Martim Costa, Hungary’s right wing Daniel Kecskes, line player Tom Bergner from Germany, and Egypt’s goalkeeper Abdelrahman Mohamed Homayed, Germany’s Julian Koster as best defender, and Egypt’s Hassan Walid Ahmed as top scorer with 51 goals, as well as Egypt’s Ahmed Hesham Elsayed selected as MVP.
During the championship, Egypt’s youngsters had a very successful run, beating Iceland in the quarter-finals, and managed to win four out of their five group stage games against Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Canada, and Hungary and had just one narrow defeat to holders France.
