Zamalek SC, commonly referred to as Zamalek, is an Egyptian sports club based in Cairo, known for its professional football team, and is considered as one of the most successful teams in Africa and one of the continent's giants. The history of Zamalek SC originates in 1911, when the club was founded by George Merzbach on January 5 as the Cairo International Sports Club "Zamalek", colloquially known as Nady El Qāhirah El Mokhtalat.
In 1913 the club moved its headquarters to the present-day intersection of 26 July Street and Ramses. The club was granted the honorific title in 1941 after King Farouk and became officially known as Farouk El Awal Club (transl. Farouk I Club), however, since the 1910s, Zamalek was the club's unofficial name and it became official after the 1952 Egyptian revolution.
Early years (1911–1915)
Little is known about the very early years of the club. According to historians, the club was established by Belgian lawyer George Merzbach. On December 25, 1910, while attending Cairo Tramways Company's Christmas celebration, Merzbach realized that the company's guest house hosting the celebration on the Nile banks then the Qasr El Nile casino would be suitable as a sports club headquarters.
During this time, Cairo's main sporting club, Gezira Sporting Club, was for the exclusive use of the British Army; subsequently, Merzbach decided to establish a new club for Egyptian, Belgian and foreign citizens. He did not find difficulties in establishing the club due to his strong ties within the Palace of Khedive Abbas II, as well as many friendships with senior officials of Egyptian society. He was also the private lawyer for Baron Empain and his Cairo Tramways Company. For the new club, he chose the name Qasr El Nile, which means Nile Palace. On January 5, 1911, the club was established, and it was officially opened on February 6 with Marzbech as its president.
Howard Carter, an archaeologist and Merzbach's personal friend, served as vice president. Noah Amin Abdullah, Ahmed Mahmoud Azzam, Khoury Chalhoub (representative of the Cairo Tramways Company), and Paolo Esposito (representative of the Khedivial Palace) formed the rest of the board of directors. It was the first club in Cairo to emerge from non-English expatriate communities. An essential aspect of the club was that it was for all people and not exclusive to any specific social, economic, or ethnic community. It started and continued through World War I under Merzbech's presidency.
In 1913, the club moved to a second headquarters at present-day intersection of the 26 July and Ramses streets and changed its name to Cairo International Sports Club (C.I.S.C.), which was colloquially translated to the Arabic name Nady El Qāhirah El Mokhtalat or simply Nady El Mokhtalat. The second president was Nicola Arfagi, who also played left wing for the club's football team.
The Aegytische Nachrichten newspaper reported in its issue of December 11, 1912 that the Cairo International Sports Club issued its first weekly newspaper under the name Cairo Sports on Saturday, December 11, 1912. The news was concerned with the Ministry of Labor's approval to allow the club to work on adding signs on all the Cairo-Alexandria Road. The ministry only wanted a preliminary sample. Zamalek (C.I.S.C) participated in the International Union's championships(El Mokhtalat union's), and Le phare d'Alexandria newspaper reported that they won the second edition of the Bolanchi Challenge Cup on December 28, 1913, after defeating the Greek team (who won the Alexandria qualifiers) by a score of 6–0. The match was played at the Zamalek's stadium in Bulaq. Zamalek's starting lineup included; Tawfik Abdullah, Soufi, Saeed, Williams, Gamal, Songhurst, Khorazati, Lyon, Southon, and Arangi. The match started at 3:07 p.m., Lyon scored the first goal in the ninth minute, and Khorazati scored the second goal in the 28th minute, and Khorazati scored two goals in the second half. Before reaching the final match, Zamalek played at home with the Italian Brotherhood team on November 23, 1913, and played with the same team on November 30, 1913.
Egyptianization, unprecedented success (1915–1941)
In 1915, Ibrahim Allam "Juhainah" moved to the club with his football team, coming from El Sekka El Hadid SC. Zamalek was the first Egyptian team to play against foreign teams. In 1916, they defeated the Scottish Horse by a score of 1–0. Zamalek's team in the 1910s included Tewfik Abdullah, Gamil Osman, Fouad Gamil, Ali El-Hassani, Abdel Salam Hamdy and Ahmed Kholousi.
The Sultan Hussein Cup started in 1917 as a competition between Egyptian football clubs and clubs of the Allied armies, including the British. Al Ahly SC Cairo's other premier sports club initially refused to take part, leaving C.I.S.C. as the only Egyptian team who participated as a sign of resistance to the British rule. In 1917. Zamalek played great matches and reached the final match against the English GHQ Signals team, the first champion of the competition. The championship was managed by the Egyptian Ibrahim Allam and was organized under the auspices of the Sultan of Egypt Hussein Kamel.
After Zamalek's historic first season, many Egyptian clubs announced their desire to participate in the competition as they found it serious, official, bearing the name of the country's sultan, and includes a trophy for the winning team. The two premier clubs of Cairo played two games in this year. The first took place on February 9, 1917, where Al-Ahly defeated home-team C.I.S.C. 1–0; the second took place on March 2, 1917, where the visiting C.I.S.C. won 1–0, and this was the start of the Cairo derby.
The club came under severe scrutiny in the same year, board of directors of zamalek raised the twelve issues included that the club's land lease was expired; that the board of directors had not met for a long time, and consisted solely of non-Egyptians; and that there were no lists of members of the club. A general assembly was convened, which issued a decision of non-confidence in the board of directors. Consequently, the board was replaced by Egyptian citizens, including Dr. Mohamed Badr as president, Ibrahim Allam as treasurer, Mustafa Hassan, Fawzi, Captain Hassan and Abdo Al-Jabbawi.
In the early 1920s, C.I.S.C. became the strongest football team and the main major force in Egyptian football. In 1921, C.I.S.C. won the Sultan Hussein Cup, becoming the first Egyptian team to ever win a title. In 1922, the club won the inaugural season of the Egypt Cup (in a 2–1 victory over Britain's Schroeders), and the first Cairo League winners in 1923, followed by victories in the 1932, 1935 and 1938 seasons. The club also won the Cairo League in 1930 and 1932.
A new board was formed in 1923 with Lieutenant General Mohammed Haidar as president and Youssef Mohamad as secretary. In the winter of 1924, the club moved for the third time to Geziret Al Zamalek on the west bank of the River Nile, and west of Gezira island and became known as Cairo International Sports Club - Zamalek.
In this era, C.I.S.C. won several Egypt Cup, and Cairo League titles. More than a generation emerged in the team that lived in the memory of the Egyptian audience such as; Ali El Hassani, Galal Kuraitam, Abdelrahman Fawzi, Moustafa Taha, Mohamed Latif, Ali Riadh and others.
Domestic domination (1941–1952)
Farouk I, King of Egypt and Sudan, who was a fan of Zamalek himself, bestowed royal sponsorship upon the club, the club was granted the honorific title and requested by the King to change its name to Nady Farouk El Awal (Farouk I Club). Accordingly, Ismail Bek Shirin (of the Muhammad Ali dynasty) took the post of the vice president.
Zamalek started the 1940s with dominating all the major football tournaments in Egypt, they won the 1939–40 and 1940-41 Cairo League consecutively and the 1940 King's Cup. With Mohamed Latif still on the pitch and with the help of Tewfik Abdullah, the head coach and Zamalek's forward in the 1920s, the team was unbeatable.
In the 1940–41 league's season, Zamalek achieved impressive results, they won eight matches out of ten, scoring five goals or more in five matches. Zamalek scored 37 goals and received only 9 goals. On 30 May 1941, Zamalek was supposed to face Al Ahly in the final match of the league, Zamalek was two points ahead of Ahly with goal difference of 28 compared to Ahly's 13, which means that Ahly needed to win with eight goals or more to win the title. Al Ahly withdrew and Zamalek played an exhibition match instead against El Sekka on that day to celebrate the title.
This period witnessed the club's biggest victories in the history of the Cairo derby (contested with Al Ahly), with a pair of 6–0 wins in the 1941–42 Cairo League and 1944 Cup Final. This record scoreline has not been broken since. The 1943 Egypt Cup was won jointly by Zamalek and Al Ahly following the cancellation of the final match. Zamalek won the Cairo League for five times in the 1940s, seasons won by Zamalek included 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45, 1946–47 and 1948–49.
A new generation of talents emerged in Egypt, the majority were in Zamalek, such as Yehia Emam, Hanafy Bastan, Omar Shendi, Zoklot, Abdel-Karim Sakr and Mohsen El-Sehaimi. Zamalek won the Cairo League for five times in the 1940s; 1940–41, 1943–44, 1944–45, 1946–47 and 1948–49. Stability in the top management of the club helped to succeed and achieve subsequent titles. Mohammad Haider Pasha was on the head of the Zamalek's administration for nearly three decades. Several football players moved back and forth from Zamalek and Al Ahly, however, each team has its own style and football strategy. Even the team's lineup itself was stable enough for a whole decade.
Abdel-Karim Sakr, who moved from Al Ahly to Zamalek in 1939 in a record transfer, played for Zamalek for 14 seasons, scored over 100 goals for the club. Zamalek's management thought that bringing Sakr to the team would not only help improve the team's attacking ability but also stop him from scoring in Zamalek. Sakr was a prolific goal scorer and helped the team in the 1940s in winning several titles and winning as well the Cairo derby. Sakr is the only player who scored in both matches against Al Ahly that finished by a score of 6–0 for Zamalek in 1941–42 Cairo League and 1944 Egypt Cup final.
In 1948, the newly formed Egyptian League was launched, Zamalek played against Al Masry in the first match on October 22, and Zamalek won by a score of 5–1. The first goal in the history of the Egyptian League was scored by Mohamed Amin, and the first hat-trick was scored by Saad Rustom. Despite not finishing the first two seasons in a good position in the league, Zamalek won the Cairo League for three consecutive seasons. In the 1948–49 Cairo League, Zamalek won the league with narrow margin. In the beginning of the 1950s, Zamalek won the Cairo League for three consecutive seasons; 1950–51, 1951–52 and 1952–53, tying with Al Ahly with 14 titles each. Zamalek finished runner-up in the 1950–51 Egyptian League, winning 11 matches and the champions; Al Ahly won 10, with both finishing with 25 points out of 18 matches, Zamalek lost the title to goal difference. In the 1952 Egypt Cup final, Zamalek defeated Al Ahly in the final with a score of 2–0, Sharif El-Far scored the two goals, Zamalek won their 8th title.
Sustained success (1952–1984)
Following the 1952 Egyptian revolution and the overthrow of King Farouk, the club was renamed Zamalek Sporting Club (Zamalek SC) after the area where the club was situated. Soon after, the club moved to its current location on 26 July Street in Cairo, 500 meters west of the Zamalek bridge, occupying an area of 35 acres (140,000 m2) and hosting 24 different sports.