There are few teams worldwide that can get the amount of fan support of Al-Ahly SC – and that was on display also at the 2022 IHF Men’s Super Globe, when over 2,000 fans travelled to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to support the Egyptian powerhouse.

And they had plenty of reasons to celebrate, as Al-Ahly became the first African side to make the semi-finals at the Super Globe since Tunisian team Étoile du Sahel made it to the top four in 2013.

Therefore, a nine-year wait was finally stopped, with the 29:28 win against SL Benfica on Thursday evening in the Dammam Sports Hall sending the fans and the Ahly players into raptures.

“When we talk about this win, we must talk about the fans also. I think we could not have done it without them. They are a huge part of this success – I think they deserve the credit for being here, and they helped us a lot. It meant like 50% of us qualifying for the semi-finals,” says Ahmed Khairy, Al-Ahly’s centre back, who has been nothing short of superb in this edition of the IHF Men’s Super Globe.

Khairy has featured in the Egypt men’s national team at the 2017 and 2019 IHF Men’s World Championships and played in Romania in the past two seasons at giants CSA Steaua Bucuresti and Dinamo Bucuresti, also featuring in the EHF Champions League Men.

However, when Al-Ahly came calling, Khairy, now in his prime at 28 years old, could not say no to his former team, where he also featured between 2018 and 2020. It proved the right decision, as he enhanced his game and delivered superb performances over the last months.

With 19 assists in the first two matches at the 2022 IHF Men’s Super Globe – two wins for Al-Ahly, 36:30 against Saudi side Mudhar and 29:28 against SL Benfica – he is by far the best provider in the competition, with 10 assists more than the second-placed player, Magdeburg’s Philipp Weber.

Khairy is also the only player in the competition to be named the ‘hummel Player of the Match’ twice, as he has been integral to Ahly’s success in the Super Globe, despite two other players, Omar Khaled Hassan and Ahmed Mesilhy being the team’s best scorers, with 13 goals each.

“It is something unbelievable, a superb performance, to play against a European side, which has won the European League and win against them. We believed from start to finish, we played very well, and this win is just well-deserved,” says Khairy.

But what makes Al-Ahly so good here, what were the things that made them tick, and what is the key for their success?

Khairy thinks it is not necessarily about Ahly’s performances but rather an uptick in Egyptian handball as a whole. Indeed, Egypt have been nothing short of spectacular in the past years, securing their best-ever finish at the Olympic Games in history – a fourth-place at Tokyo 2020. Their seventh-place finish at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship came after a match that will enter the history books, where the eventual champions, Denmark, eliminated the Pharaohs after penalties in the quarter-finals.

“Since David Davis was appointed the head coach of the Egypt national team in 2018, we have been getting better and better. After Davis, in 2019, Roberto Garcia Parrondo took over, and the common denominator between the two is that they both represent the Spanish school of handball.

“It made us better; it helped us improve as players, but also as a team, which I think is the most important thing. We learnt to be a team, and with many players from Al-Ahly coming to the national team, it also helped the club to improve and function as a team,” says Khairy.

A Spanish coach was also responsible for bringing Al-Ahly to the Super Globe, but Dani Gordo was replaced by David Davis shortly before the start of the competition, who will assume the position from next week onwards.

It is no coincidence that Benfica’s coach Chema Rodriguez found it difficult to break Al-Ahly in the last game of Group B at the 2022 IHF Men’s Super Globe, as many of the players knew exactly what to expect.

“He is also Spanish, so we knew what his principles are, because we know Spanish handball, and we watched Benfica closely, prepared for the game, and we snatched this very, very important win. I am very proud of what we achieved,” adds Khairy.

Al-Ahly’s best performance in the IHF Men’s Super Globe was a second place in 2007, but back then, the tournament format was a round-robin one, with every team playing against each other in a group.

Since 2010, when the knockout format was introduced, only four African teams made it to the semi-final: Egyptian rivals Zamalek in three editions and Tunisian side Étoile du Sahel. None made it to the final, though, as all four semi-finals ended with losses.

Can the tide be turned in Dammam in this edition of the Super Globe?

On paper, Al-Ahly will start as an underdog once again when facing reigning champions SC Magdeburg, who are riding a six-game winning streak in the IHF Men’s Super Globe, dating back to 2021.

However, Magdeburg had their share of trouble in the last preliminary round match against Khaleej, ultimately clinching a 35:29 win with a strong performance in the last 20 minutes of the game.

And Khairy knows this is Ahly’s chance.

“Magdeburg lost against Benfica in the European League final a few months ago, right? We beat Benfica here. So why shouldn’t we think that we can win against them too? With these amazing fans behind us, with this great team spirit, everything is possible,” concludes the centre back.