How Music Documented the History of Egyptian Football

A captivating look at how music and terrace chants shaped the cultural history and passionate rivalries of Egyptian football.

By Mahmoud Dowair

Football transcends the boundaries of a mere sport where teams contend for victory or silverware; it has mutated into a deeply influential social and populist phenomenon, rightfully earning its moniker as the people’s ultimate game. It commands the fascination of all societies, none more so than the architects of song. Poets penned verses, composers structured melodies, and vocalists sang to the rhythms of the bewitching round leather ball, seeking to translate the raw emotions of millions of faithful supporters. Thus, the song became an inextricable organ of the football ecosystem, echoed tirelessly by devotees in the stands.

From Club Fanbases to the Egyptian National Team

The melodies vibrating alongside football varied between anthems exalting popular clubs, chief among them Al Ahly and Zamalek, widely dubbed the “two poles of Egyptian football,” alongside songs dedicated to other heavily supported regional clubs. Concurrently, works emerged designed to galvanize the national team players and nourish the collective patriotic spirit.

Within this landscape, several iconic patriotic tracks found new purpose, most notably Shadia’s masterpiece “Ya Habibti Ya Masr” (Oh Egypt, My Beloved) and Sherine Abdel Wahab’s “Have You Not Drunk From Its Nile?”. The legendary manager Captain Hassan Shehata famously asserted his profound optimism whenever this latter song echoed through the training camps of the Egyptian national team.

The Song Written by an Ahly Fan and Composed by a Zamalek Devotee

The genesis traces back to 1962, when Mohamed Roshdy delivered one of the earliest musical pieces intertwined with football, “Ya Zamalek Ya Mansour” (Oh Victorious Zamalek), following the club’s coronation as Egyptian Premier League champions. The track achieved immense widespread popularity, anchoring itself as an early landmark in the history of Egyptian sports music.

During the same era, the artist Sabah introduced her famous ballad “About Al Ahly and Zamalek,” which spread rapidly after its broadcast on the newly born Egyptian television network following 1960. What distinguishes this particular song is its enduring reputation as a creation born of “Al Ahly lyrics and a Zamalek melody.” Hussein Al Sayed, a renowned Al Ahly loyalist, penned the words, while Mohamed Abdel Wahab, an ardent Zamalek supporter, composed the music.

Its verses went: "Between Al Ahly and Zamalek, I am torn by grace. 
Love for Al Ahly and Zamalek leaves me in a bewildered place."

Terrace Creeds Transformed into Football Chants

During the 1970s, songs detailing individual player wizardry, footballing icons, and clubs began to recede, giving way to fiery, passionate hymns forged by the club fanbases and devotees of the game.

Al Ahly’s faithful chanted: “Arise, O Ahly,” while the Zamalek crowd sang: “Zamalek is a school of design, playing with art and engineering so fine.” The Ismaily faithful roared: “Dervishes, Dervishes” and “Ismaily, our champions true,” while the Ittihad Alexandri crowd shouted: “Alexandria has spoken its decree, Ittihad rules the city, wild and free.”

These anthems were performed collectively to distinctive, rhythmic melodies, inherited across generations with each era adding its unique signature. With the dawn and proliferation of the cassette tape generation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, new archetypes of football songs emerged, some originating in cinema before saturating the market via cassette tapes.

Among the most prominent of these works was Ahmed Adaweya’s song “Tell Al Ahly and Zamalek”, which he premiered during the events of the 1981 film “4-2-4,” mirroring the overwhelming, sweeping popularity both clubs enjoyed among the Egyptian masses.

Its lyrics stated: “Tell Zamalek and Al Ahly right away, Prepare the pitch and call me out to play.”

In 2008, the film “Al Zamahlaweya” featured the track “Ahly and Zamalek,” carrying a poignant message that called for the rejection of sports fanaticism, emphasizing that footballing rivalry should never sever the social bonds uniting supporters.

The First Manager to Have Fans Chant His Name in Song

With the dawn of the 1990s, the national team kept a rendezvous with a historic milestone, qualifying for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy. Here, the chants pivoted from club allegiance to national unity. It marked perhaps the very first time the masses chanted the name of a manager, rather than a legendary icon like Mahmoud El Khatib or Hassan Shehata.

The name of Mahmoud El Gohary transformed into a universal chant echoed by all: “Gohary… Gohary.” The triumphs of the Egyptian national team became deeply intertwined with the patriotic songs utilized to rally the squads, particularly the football team. This crystallized vividly in 1998, when the Pharaohs captured the Africa Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso under the stewardship of the national coach Mahmoud El Gohary, a tournament during which singer Mohamed Ziad released his famous track “Wad La’eeb” (A Skillful Lad).

To mark the Egyptian national team’s coronation at the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations, followed by retaining the title in 2008 and 2010, dozens of songs emerged celebrating the golden generation of Egyptian football. A vast constellation of vocalists participated, engraving these tracks into the collective memory of an era defined by Egyptian hegemony over African football.

Among the most celebrated of these works was Hamada Helal’s “Wallah W ‘Amloha El Regala” (By God, the Men Did It). This phenomenon recurred with every national team participation in World Cup qualifiers or continental tournaments, where song became a tool to galvanize the masses and inspire the players. In 2010, Hamada Helal presented “Helem ‘Eshnah” (A Dream We Lived), expressing the collective longing to qualify for the World Cup, a dream that ultimately went unfulfilled.

A New Frontier in Sports Anthems

In 2018, artist Amir Eid delivered the song “Ana Al Ahly” (I Am Al Ahly), which fast became one of the most famous sports tracks of recent years. The song stood out for its high-caliber production and lyrics centered on Al Ahly’s storied history and massive fanbase, contributing to its sweeping viral status among supporters.

Observers note that “Ana Al Ahly” represents a new frontier in the Egyptian sports anthem, signaling a shift where clubs began treating music as an intrinsic asset of their marketing and cultural identity.

Its verses proclaimed:

"I am Al Ahly, the past and what is now to be, 
I am the name that shakes the mountains to the sea, 
From the very start until the final end, 
A factory of champions on whom we can depend."

Conversely, composer Aziz El Shafei, a prominent backer of Zamalek, delivered one of the most celebrated songs tied to the club, I Am a Zamalek Fan. Its lyrics resonated:

"The white jersey with its two stripes of red, 
I will love it till the day that I am dead, Zamalekawy, 
Zamalekawy, a Zamalek fan am I, Since the day of my birth under the open sky, 
No matter how many years slip away and fade, 
No tale can describe the love that we made."

Similarly, the sons of every club expressed their overwhelming emotions toward their teams. This manifests clearly in the tracks presented by Ahmed Tarek Yehia to support Zamalek, including “Al Talta Yameen” (The Right Third Terrace), which abandoned traditional poetic meter to lean closer to a direct, raw stadium chant. Its verses declared:

"I will shout a seven-letter word that shakes my soul inside, 
A Zamalekawy till my final day, with nothing left to hide, 
For the one who raised me was a Zamalekawy true, 
Mark my words, I stand by this club, not for names or who is who, 
People come and people go, but the club's soul stays alive, winning my respect, 
I am not innocent if loving it is the crime they detect, yes, the crime they detect."

Song also maintained a powerful presence in supporting and rallying major popular clubs, including Ismaily SC, whose creative fans crafted several collective hymns and melodies. Chief among these is “Ismaily Ya Ghali” (My Precious Ismaily), which sings:

"My precious Ismaily, though time may grow severe, 
I wear the yellow and love you always, my dear, 
The sweetest joy that my life has ever known, 
O Ismaily, club of glories widely shown, 
Everywhere you go, your triumphs brightly shine, 
Your fans are always behind you, in victory and down the line."

Ultras Groups: The Architects of Song in the Terraces

Over the past two decades, “Ultras” fan groups burst forcefully onto the scene, pushing football fandom into a brave new era, shifting the epicenter from the recording studio to the stadium terraces. The supporters themselves metamorphosed into the creators of songs and chants that vocalize their raw allegiance to their clubs.

This era stood out for the birth of collective hymns that spread like wildfire across the internet and social media platforms, cementing themselves as a core part of the fan identity, far detached from the traditional tracks produced by professional vocalists. Each Ultras group forged its distinct anthem, echoed by its members in the stands and during club-related milestones. These hymns are almost entirely collective creations, bearing no known author or professional composer, and occasionally, a single club might possess multiple anthems.

Among the most famous anthems of the “White Knights,” the organized supporters of Zamalek, the verses echo:

"The sweetest life we live with you inside the Right Third tier,
 Our tale with you makes us brothers in blood till judgment day is near, 
A story of knights we live with you, passing age to age, 
We guarded it from envious eyes and those who spit with rage, 
To whoever hears us now, our story is long and deep, 
The love of Zamalek is the vow we eternally keep."

The narrative remains identical for Al Ahly’s supporters group, who chant an array of fiery anthems, including “The Greatest Club in the Universe”, whose words declare:

"The greatest club in the universe entire, 
Even if the whole world fights its fire, 
I will love it with a madness so deep, 
The day of its victory is a feast I will keep, 
Never will I wander or step away from its side, 
The day I stop chanting, I will have surely died."

These profound words reveal the true scale of passion and allegiance, which transcends merely cheering for a team or a player. It morphs into an absolute pillar of the supporter’s identity, translating a deep emotional bond that occasionally borders on absolute devotion and uncompromising loyalty.