Bronze twice for Al-Ahly

The African champions Al-Ahly defeated Brazilian giants Palmeiras 3-2 on penalties in the play-off for the third place of the FIFA Club World Cup to win the bronze medal for the second time in their history in this competition. They had claimed their first bronze in the 2006 edition in Japan after a match against Mexico’s Club America.

Following their success and astounding victory, Egypt’s head of state President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi congratulated the Egyptian team for their achievements and for making Egyptians proud. Al-Ahly received a heroic welcome back home on their arrival as the fans celebrated their beloved team’s historic win. 

Al-Ahly’s victory has improved the club’s ranking worldwide. The club has a current market value of 25.50m Euros as well as a current transfer record worth 3.57m Euros.

Following the third place win, FIFA took to Twitter to congratulate the Red Devils for their achievement writing, “Al-Ahly wins penalties and takes the bronze medal. Congratulations to Al-Ahly for winning third place against Brazilian Palmeiras.”

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) also used the same social media platform to congratulate the African champions, who qualified to the Clubs World Cup after winning the CAF Champions League last season. The CAF said, “For the second time Al-Ahly wins the bronze medal in the Club World Cup. Congratulations to the representative and hero of Africa.”

Al-Ahly is the record champion of the CAF Champions League with nine titles, the last of which was won against Zamalek in 2020.

Al-Ahly had opened their campaign at the seven-team tournament by beating Qatar’s Al Duhail 1-0 in their opening match. It was Hussein El-Shahat who scored for Al-Ahly 30 minutes into the game.

European champions Bayern Munich, which beat Al-Ahly 2-0 in the semifinal, won the trophy for their second time as well by beating CONCACAF’s Mexican Tigres UANL with a goal by Benjamin Pavardin in the tournament that was held in Qatar. The German team, who claimed their maiden title of the competition in 2013, has thus earned their sixth trophy in a year, a feat only achieved once before by Barcelona in the 2008/09 season.

El Shennawy’s two saved penalties in the shoot-out gave Al-Ahly their second bronze medal in the prestigious Club World Cup after the 90 minutes of the play-off of the third place ended with a scoreless result. Al-Ahly thus won the game 3-2. The fourth place went to the Mexican team. El Shennawy’s incredible performance during the match earned him the Man of the Match Award, an accolade usually awarded to a player, but his presentation at the match and penalty saves in the end landed him with this valuable award. 

Unfortunately, both players Mahmoud Kahraba and Hussein El-Shahat missed the play-off game after being suspended by FIFA. Both players had, after their game against Bayern Munich, approached the stands to greet and shake hands with the club’s retired player Mohamed Abu Treika, who was sitting among the spectators of the club. Abu Treika is currently working as a football analyst at the Qatari sports channel beIN. The act was a breach of FIFA’s bubble concept applied to all teams and participants during the championship and indicated a failure to comply with the preventive measures from the Covid-19 pandemic after the match. Accordingly, both players were isolated and banned from taking part in the game.

The FIFA Club World Cup was the first FIFA tournament to be staged in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event saw six matches being played at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium and the Education City Stadium, where 12 goals have been scored with an average of 1.7 per game. 

Top scorers were Andre-Piere Gignac of Tigres UANL who scored three goals while Robert Lewandowski scored two. Lewandowski also claimed the Golden Ball Award, while Gignac claimed the Silver Ball Award. The Bronze Ball Award went to Joshua Kimmich of Bayern Munich and the Fair Play Award went to the Al Duhail SC.

Al Duhail then beat Ulsan Hyundai 3-1 to finish fifth, thanks to superb goals from Edmilson Junior, Mohamed Muntari, and Al Moez Ali. The Qataris dominated the game and earned the win.

Interestingly, Al-Ahly had the most spectators attending the games in the stadiums, thanks to the huge Egyptian community based in the Gulf nation, Qatar. When landing at the Qatar airport before the tournament kicked-off, Al-Ahly officials and team were stunned to see thousands of the club’s fans waiting for them outside the airport to celebrate their arrival with drums as they chanted the club’s famous songs. Head of delegation Mahmoud El-Khatib was thankful to all supporters and was keen to show his appreciation by going to them and greeting them for their nice gesture coming to the airport to welcome their beloved team.

Al-Ahly has a record 42 national league titles, 37 FA Cup titles, and 11 Super Cup titles. In international competitions, the club has won a record of nine CAF Champions League titles, a CAF Confederation Cup title, a record of six CAF Super Cups, a record four African Cup Winners’ Cups, an Afro-Asian Club Championship, an Arab Club Champions Cup, an Arab Cup Winners Cup, a record two Arab Super Cups, and a bronze medal in the 2006 and 2020 FIFA Club World Cup. Al-Ahly is the second most successful club in the world in terms of number of international titles with 25, only one behind Real Madrid’s 26 international titles. 

Al-Ahly has also been recognized with two awards: Globe Soccer Top Titles Winners in the Middle East in 2020 and the CAF Club of the 20thCentury in 2001.