EHF head: Germany is our World Cup rehearsal
The hunt for a world handball medal has officially begun.
While the 2027 IHF Men’s World Championship in Germany is still a year away, the Egyptian national handball team is already launching an intensive preparation phase designed to bridge the gap between continental dominance and global glory.
The Pharaohs will travel for two friendly matches against the German national team during the international window in March 2026.
These fixtures, scheduled for March 19 at the Westfalenhalle Dortmund and March 22 at the ÖVB Arena in Bremen, are the cornerstone of a strategic plan to immerse the players in the high-pressure atmosphere of German arenas, long before the tournament officially begins in January 2027.
Egypt is also scheduled to play Sweden next May.
President of the Egyptian Handball Federation,Khaled Fathi, described these matches as far more than mere exhibition games.
“The agreement to face the German national team,the reigning European champions and a primary contender for the world title, came at the mutual request of both federations,” he revealed in an exclusive interview with the Egyptian Gazette.
He characterised the upcoming trip as a test that would allow Egyptian players to breathe the air of the tournament a year in advance.
“Facing the reigning European champions on their own soil is an essential step for the coaching staff to gauge the team’s true level,” Fathi said.
Fathi was candid about the team’s trajectory, stating that while their fifth-place finish in the 2025 World Championship was a milestone, it remains a floor,rather than a ceiling for their ambitions.
The goal, he added, is now a podium finish, and facing top-tier European opposition is viewed as the only path to achieving that peak readiness.
This ambitious global push comes on the heels of a master-class performance in Kigali, Rwanda, where Egypt recently reasserted its absolute authority over African handball.
In a dominant display last month, the Pharaohs dismantled Tunisia 37–24 in the final of the 2026 African Men’s Handball Championship.
The victory was historic, marking Egypt’s fourth consecutive continental title and their tenth overall, equalling Tunisia’s long-standing record.
Throughout the tournament, the team maintained a perfect record, recording wins over Algeria, Nigeria, and Angola.
The Egyptian national handball team has become a true global powerhouse between 2018 and 2026.
On the continental level, they have been completely unstoppable, winning four straight African Nations Cup titles in 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2026.
This brought their total to ten trophies, tying the record for the most titles in history.
Remarkably, the team has not lost a single match in Africa since 2018, racking up 25 wins in a row.
On the world stage, Egypt has proven they can compete with the very best.
They made history by finishing fourth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and continued their success with a fifth-place finish at the 2025 World Championship.
These achievements have solidified their reputation as one of the top five teams in the world, consistently challenging the traditional dominance of European nations.
In 2019, Egypt became the first non-European team to win the U17 World Championship, while also taking home a bronze medal in the U19 category that same year.
Most recently, the junior team won a silver medal at the 2025 World Championship in Morocco, proving that Egypt’s handball golden generation is here to stay.
The sustained success of the Egyptian handball system is widely recognized as the fruit of a developmental blueprint established in the 1990s by the current President of the International Handball Federation Hassan Moustafa.
Known as the Giants’ Project, this initiative shifted the focus towards physical scouting and the scientific classification of youth sectors.
By creating a production line of talent and enacting decisive laws to develop cadres at the club level, Egypt has built a resilient infrastructure that transcends individual generations.
Fathi is confident that as the team prepares for its March tour in Germany, the message it wants to send the international handball community is that Egypt is no longer merely a regional powerhouse, but a permanent, formidable fixture in the global elite, ready to challenge for the world crown.
