Winners at the 2019 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, Egypt had big ambitions to secure their second title on home soil, in Cairo, at the current edition of the Under-19 world handball flagship competition.

But with only two days before the start of the competition, head coach Tarek Elsayed fell ill. The person who knew everything about this team and has been preparing it for the last six months, could not sit on the bench anymore.

It was a heavy blow for Egypt and their title dreams, but something needed to be done and with less than 48 hours before their opener against the Republic of Korea, Fernando Barbeito was the chosen coach to lead this team in the competition.

“In this situation, it's difficult because this team had been working with another coach for six months,” says Barbeito.

“There were only two days. I had only two days with this team, two training sessions, so there was really not much I could do. The Federation asked me to take over this challenge, because the coach unfortunately fell ill. I was the coordinator and supervisor of all the young teams of Egypt. I knew the team, but I hadn't worked with them. And I only had two 50-minute training sessions to finetune everything.”

Luckily, Egypt produced yet another talented crop of players, just like in 2019, when they were crowned world champions, with future stars like the MVP of that competition, Ahmed Hesham, or Hassan Kaddah and Mohab Abdelhak, who are now featuring in the senior team.

And that talent was on display in the preliminary round of the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, when Egypt beat the Republic of Korea, 46:27, Bahrain, 36:28, and Japan, 36:28, after a fantastic comeback in the second half of the last match, after Japan had an 18:14 lead at the break.

“We need to improve. I am happy with the results, but not about how we played in the first half against Japan. In the second half, we won by 12 goals. But I am not 100% happy with what we showed, because in the first half, there were a lot of mistakes, we had a low efficiency in attack and in defence, until we changed to 5-1, there was not much we did,” says Barbeito.

The former right wing, who played for Spanish giants FC Barcelona between 1986 and 1998 as a wing, winning three Champions League titles, transitioned into coaching after his retirement and woked as an assistant for Spain men’s senior team, as well as the head coach for the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia national teams, but also for some Spanish clubs.

He was also Xavi Pascual’s assistant at Barcelona for several years, a position he will fill again after Pascual took over Egypt men’s senior national team in July, for the next Olympic cycle, hoping to bring even more glory to the African powerhouse.

But until then, two more challenges await Barbeito and this Egypt men’s youth national team on their home soil, as they are due to face Czechia and Denmark in the main round of the competition. A win against Czechia would virtually see Egypt through to the next phase of the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, sealing a quarter-finals berth.

“It's a challenge not only for me, but for all the handball in Egypt, for being organisers of this World Championship. The most important game is the one against Czechia. If we win, we are in the quarterfinals. And then we will play against Denmark. We'll see how it goes and we'll see who we play against in the quarterfinals if we win,” says Barbeito.

Consistent in the last editions of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, with Egypt finishing fourth at Croatia 2023, the eyes are surely set here from the podium, with the expectations being higher and higher.

“I would be signing for a medal right now. But there are teams like Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Serbia, Iceland, Germany which can win the title. Who knows, maybe an underdog like Hungary of France too. They are going to be very difficult opponents. We'll see who we play against. We'll see how the results will go. And we'll see the final position,” says the Spanish coach.

Appointing Barbeito as the coordinator for the younger age category teams for Egypt  just reinforces the bet made by the Egyptian Handball Federation on the Spanish connection, which brought them some of the best results in the history of the team over the past years.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Egypt finished fourth, missing out on a medal just slightly. Three years later, at Paris 2024, the African side flirted with a semi-finals berth again, but was eliminated in extra-time in the quarter-finals by Spain.

And at the senior IHF Men’s World Championship, Egypt made the quarter-finals in each of the last three editions, going agonisingly close to a semi-finals berth both at Egypt 2021 and at Croatia/Denmark/Norway 2025, losing crunch clashes against Denmark and France respectively.

“David Davis opened the way in the national team, he was followed by Roberto Garcia Parrondo, Juan Carlos Pastor and, now, Xavi Pascual. Davis was also at club level, in Al-Ahly, I was in Zamalek. In this case, the new president and the new board of directors. Made a vote of confidence not only for the senior team, with Xavi Pascual in charge, but we're also going to create a three-year programme for the Egyptian handball. Xavi will be in charge of the first team, I will be in charge of the younger age categories,” says Barbeito.

“In three years, after the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, there might be changes in the senior team, of course, and we need to be prepared. If they are needed, we have to have the players ready. Probably, the Egyptian federation made this decision because Spanish coaches work a lot and maybe they do something well.”