History of Al Ahly SC
The names of the first players of Al Ahly club were as follows: Hussain Higazi, Abdel Fattah Taher, Fouad Darwish, Hussein Mansour, and Ibrahim Fahmy.
[9] In 1915, Al Ahly made tours inside Egypt cities in order to play various matches and to spread football and its culture.
[12] In 1923, Al-Ahly won the Sultan Hussain Cup after beating the defending champion Zamalek, then added 6 other titles to be the record holder in the number of wins until the last edition in 1938.
[20] The 1949–50 season witnessed a historical superiority for Al Ahly by the golden fifties generation led by Saleh Selim and Toto and Ahmed Makkawi, winning all the local championships.
Al Ahly won the Egyptian Premier League after strong competition with Tersana ended with the two teams tying in points.
The competition returned the following season and Al Ahly managed to win it for the fourth time in a row with only two points ahead of Zamalek, after the two teams tied 2–2 in the last round, In the Egypt Cup, Al Ahly managed to defeat the defending champions Zamalek 4–1 in the final in a match in which Saleh Selim scored two goals and his older brother Abdel-Wahab Selim also scored a goal.
An entire generation of football stars retired because of the war, like Saleh Selim, Tariq Salim, Taha Ismail, Rifaat El-Fanagily, Adel Haikal and Mahmoud El-Gohary.
Al-Ahly did not win the league for another 13 years.After years of deterioration, Ahly took the first steps to recovery when the management decided to sign Nándor Hidegkuti as head coach in September 1973 at a salary of fewer than 600 dollars.
[31] Al Ahly's first participation in the African Champions League was in 1976, and the start was unsuccessful for the future Club of the Century, as the team got knocked out from the first round by MC Alger.
[34] From 1978 to 1980, Hidegkuti refused to take part in the African Cup of Champions Clubs due to lack of financial resources and exhausting journeys in Africa.
Al Ahly reached the semi-final of 1981 African Cup of Champions Clubs but withdrew because of the assassination of the President Anwar Sadat.
[37]Al Ahly reached the final of the African Champions League for the second time in a row in 1983, but rivals Kotoko managed to avenge their defeat by scoring the only goal in both matches.
The second leg, which took place on Sunday (11 December) in Kumasi in the presence of 70,000 spectators, ended with 1–0 win scored by Opoku Nti in the 22nd minute.
Three days after the match, Al Ahly legend Mahmoud El Khatib decided to retire after 17 years at a press conference attended by a large crowd of journalists.
[45][46] After three years without winning the league, the title returned to Al Ahly in the 1993–94 season under the management of Alan Harris after a strong competition with Ismaily SC, which was only decided by a playoff match in which the Red Giants won 4–3 in Alexandria by a wonderful hat-trick scored by Mohamed Ramadan.
This time the victim was Kaizer Chiefs F.C., who lost 4–1 in Cairo in a match in which Al Ahly goalkeeper Essam El Hadary scored his historic goal.
The defending champions Zamalek had a very strong team, but Khaled Bebo, the star of Al Ahly, managed to score 4 goals.
[56] Al Ahly also won the first Egyptian Super Cup with an exciting win over ENPPI Club 1–0, with a goal in extra time by Wael Gomaa.
At the end of 2005, Ahly clinched the CAF Champions League for the fourth time in their history after defeating Étoile Sportive du Sahel 3–0 in Cairo.
Al Ahly then appeared at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan for the first time, but the start was not successful as the team lost to Sydney FC and then Al-Ittihad.
Al Ahly then returned to the Egyptian Cup with a big 3–0 win over Zamalek SC, scoring the full mark in local championships.
Al Ahly returned to participate in 2006 FIFA Club World Cup for the second time in a row in the championship that was held in Japan.
The team also won the Super Cup for the fourth time in a row by beating Zamalek 2–0 with goals by Ahmed Hassan and Moataz Eno.
In the CAF Champions League, Al Ahly qualified for the semi-finals but was knocked out by Espérance Sportive de Tunis because of a famous referee Joseph Lamptey mistake that gave the hosts a win in the second leg with a clear handball in the goal scored by Michael Eneramo.
Despite the difficult events, Al Ahly players overcame all circumstances and achieved the 2012 CAF Champions League for the seventh time after they beat Esperance in the Final.
[64][65] Al Ahly, led by Hossam Al Badri, achieved fourth place in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, achieving victory in the first match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2–1, with goals by El Sayed Hamdy and Ahly's talismanic striker Mohamed Aboutrika who came off the bench to score the winning goal after only 12 minutes into the second half.
[68] Al Ahly made their way to the African Confederations Cup after an early exit from the Champions League, but the Red Giants had a strong new impetus, which was the addition of this continental tournament to the club's cupboard for the first time.
[69] Al Ahly went through a critical phase after most of the stars of the old generation retired, causing the loss of a number of tournaments until the team regained its balance when they met with Zamalek to determine the Super Cup champion in the game that was held in Dubai for the first time at the end of 2015.
Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Shafi led the Red Giants to a 3–2 win over Zamalek to add the ninth Egyptian Super Cup in the club's history.
Weiler replaced Martin Lasarte who was sacked despite guiding Ahly to win the Egyptian Premier League title with a game to spare.
