Unexpected success in Morocco with promoted HUS Agadir had seen Zambian title specialist Trebor Mahtal restore his reputation to Regional, despite possessing elite levels of authority, motivating and people management. With a heavy heart, he stood down as Agadir manager and went in search of his 12th African club.
He immediately applied for a couple of jobs in Egypt and one in Tunisia, which were among the big countries he was hoping to target along with Algeria and a return to South Africa. He received interview offers from Moroccan sides Wydad Casablance and Berkane, which were rejected, while cashing in on a bit of punditry work for broadcasters in various countries at the 2038 World Cup in Algeria. He soon had an interview in Tunisia, and five days later got offered a job that he delayed twice. He eventually got an interview invite from a huge club in Egypt, which three days later came in with an offer he could not refuse.
Who Are Pyramids?
Pyramids FC is a professional club that, as the name suggests, is based in New Cairo, within the wider metropolitan area of Greater Cairo, and plays in the Egyptian Premier League. The club was formed in 2008 with the name Al Assiouty Sport based in Beni Suef, before being bought and moved to Cairo by Saudi government official Turki Al-Sheik, who also owned Almeria until 2025 and is the co-founder of Zuffa Boxing, Al-Sheik changed the club name to Pyramids FC and duly sold it to UAE businessman Salem Al Shamsi a year later. Pyramids recorded a high of 2nd back in 2022 and the following three seasons to the big two of Al-Ahly and Zamalek, but won the CAF Champions League in 2025.
In this save, they broke that league duck in 2029 before finishing 2nd twice and a lowly 18th in 2032 before a series of mid-table finishes, winning the league despite finishing 2nd in 2037, then dropping to 9th last season. Pyramids play at the 43,125-capacity Pyramids Stadium, which was built in 2034 and is supported by excellent training and youth facilities, adequate academy coaching and above average youth recruitment.
The usual financial struggles were in full force, with Pyramids sitting £70k in the red and overspending an £84k weekly wage bill by £8k. But this was very much the biggest opportunity of Mahtal’s 13-year Football Manager career. That prompted one of the manager’s customary firesales, flogging 14 players for £350k and releasing 6 players to free up around £10k in wages. However, they were set to earn £4.75m in TV rights over the season.
AI squad building had done its finest as Pyramids were overloaded with centre backs, defensive midfielders and six players with the position AM(L) ST, but only two senior full backs. The best player at the club was 45-time capped centre back Mahmoud Manga, who was probably the best player Mahtal had ever worked with, along with centre backs Ali Moslem and Kamal Mokhtar, rapid Cameroon international striker Valéry Ekani, midfielder Mahmoud El Araby, Senegalese striker Mamadou Fall, full backs Mohamed and Ali Elmohamady and goalkeeper Mahmoud Ahmed.
Those sales also provided just enough money to sign a player Mahtal had been tracking for a while, who also has to win the award for the greatest newgen name of all time. South African midfielder Welcome De Kock appeared on a NxGn list a few years ago, was immediately added to the shortlist and was finally interested, so joined for £250k from Mamelodi Sundowns. He was joined by another potential star as attacker Sandile Qoyoti joined on loan from Sundowns.
Given the heavy tilt toward defensive options, Mahtal opted to go with an approach that was essentially a 4-3-3 dropping into a 5-4-1. Out of necessity, Mokhtar will learn to step up into midfield, while De Kock goes from a half back into a back three with Mohamed Kamal, Ekani and Fall forming a strong attacking trio. He looked to encourage players to pass into space to utilise Ekani’s pace, while encouraging dribbling, working the ball into the box and playing whipped crosses.
Getting Started in Egypt
Mahtal’s formation looked impressive as they beat Leverkusen and Lazio in pre-season friendlies. The Egyptian bookies had them as 4th favourites for the Premier League with odds of 20/1. Champions Zamalek are 7/4 favourites, along with Al-Ahly (13/5), Wadi Degla (11/1), Proxy SC and ZED (20/1) and Haras El Hodoud (25/1). The Egyptian Premier League has an unusual format as the 20 teams play each other once in the regular season before splitting in half into a champions playoff and relegation playoff, in which teams again play each other once.
Mahtal’s time in Egypt began with an impressive away performance as Pyramids raced into a 4-0 lead through Kamal, Ekani, Mokhtar and Fall, before beating ENPPI 4-2. Another away day was equally impressive as Ekani’s brace led a 3-0 win at Proxy. And the Pyramids fans were impressed in their first look at the Zambian boss as three early goals from the attacking trio of Fall, Ekani and Kamal downed former Spurs striker Mido’s Abu Qir Fertilizers (great club name!) on his home debut. One of the toughest games in Egypt followed as they travelled to Al-Ahly, but they started well with another Ekani goal afer 23 minutes but gave in to considerable pressure and went away with a hard-earned point.
Mahtal had a welcome reunion with one of his favourite players Amadu Honey, who scored 19 in 31 at Ghana’s Asante Kotoko back in 2031/32, as Pyramids defeated the league’s projected whipping boys Ghazl El-Mahalla 4-0. Ekani’s superb start to the season continued with braces at bottom side El Gouna and a 6-0 win over Masar, which earned him consecutive player of the month awards. And he repeated the feat in a 3-0 home win over 2nd-place Al-Ittihad. That extended Pyramids’ unbeaten start to 11 games, taking advantage of Zamalek’s continental commitments to lead them by 11 points having played 3 more matches.
Mid-Season League Cup
2039 began with the EFA League Cup that started with four five-team groups. Ekani picked up where he left off, bagging a hat trick to defeat Kafr El Zayat 5-2 in the opener before suffering a 3-week virus. Without him, they struggled to a 0-0 at Pharco but another South African attacker arrived in January and Joseph Martin scored on debut in a 4-1 win at home to the Fertilizers and Qotoyi scored his first 2 Pyramids goals in a 2-0 win at El Sekka. Martin and Ekani downed Kafr again 2-0 in the quarters before Ekani’s late goal nicked a 2-1 win over El Minya to reach the final for the first time. Predictably, they took on Zamalek in the final, which was oddly two weeks after the end of the league campaign, and they fell to a 2-1 defeat. They also faced Zamalek in the last 16 of the Egypt Cup and lost 2-0.
Huge Record Sale Before Battling Favourites Zamalek
Pyramids took a 6-point lead over Al-Ittihad and 10-point lead over Zamalek, who now had 4 games in hand, into the final five games of the regular season. However, in one of the strangest pieces of fixture scheduling you’re ever likely to see, Zamalek played SIX times before Pyramids’ next match, losing the first 1-0 at home to Al-Ahly, but winning the next five pretty comfortably to go top of the league by 5 points having played 2 more matches.
Pyramids suffered a big blow as Saudi side Abha came in for Manga, who’d told Mahtal he wanted to move to a bigger club. They offered £2.5m, which would have surpassed the existing record sale of £2.1m, Mahtal demanded £6m and they accepted, leaving him very little choice but to sell. Two days later, Al-Tai came in for Ekani with a derisory, non-negotiable, heavy on instalments £8m bid that was dismissed with the disdain it deserved. The Manga sale forced Mahtal to switch up his approach, moving to more of a 4-3-3 with new boy Martin retraining as a midfielder.
The Premier League resumed with a huge game as unbeaten Pyramids entertained Zamalek without a fit left back. Ekani put them ahead, with a goal that sees him become Pyramid’s all-time record league scorer with 55, before Zamalek scored twice in 3 minutes at the end of the first half, but El Araby’s delicious 20-yarder earned a point. Another draw at Al-Gaish handed the advantage to Zamalek, but Zamalek also drew a game and a Qotoyi brace earned a 3-1 win at El Sekka sent Pyramids top going into the final game. More odd scheduling saw Zamalek win their last match 4-1 three days before Pyramids, but they responded with a 2-0 victory to top the regular season.
The Champions Playoff stage began with two tough games. First up, Pyramids hosted Al-Ahly, who’ve won 8 of the 13 titles during this save, and lost for the first time this season 2-1 before a solid defensive effort earned a 0-0 at Zamalek that kept them top of the league on goal difference.
A three-week break followed, so Mahtal sent the lads on a two-week break. They came back fresh and Fall’s brace earned a 2-1 win at home to Masar before he scored the only goal at Al-Ittihad, while Zamalek drew 0-0 at Haras. That left Pyrmaids 2 points clear of Zamalek and going into the final 5 games.
Game 24 – ZED (6th, away): The title race began with Pyramids hitting top form. A Elmohamady got them going after 19 minutes, before first-half Marti and Ekani braces and another Fall goal wrapped up a dominant 6-0 victory. Zamalek only drew 0-0 at El Gouna, extending the lead to 4 points with 4 games remaining.
Game 25 – Haras El Hodoud (7th, home): Fall’s fine form continued as he opened the scoring after 35 minutes and, after conceding a sloppy goal, doubled his tally with a header from Qotoyi’s cross to secure a 2-1 win. Zamalek hammered El Mokawloon 7-1 to stay 4 points back.
Game 26 – El Sekka (8th, away): Zamalek nicked a 2-1 win at Al-Ahly before Pyramids’ latest away day. But the leaders responded well as a goal in each half by Ekani earned the same scoreline at El Sekka.
Game 27 – El Gouna (9th, home): Pyramids would wrap up the title if they won at home to El Gouna. They dominated the first half but wasted several decent chances. But that man Fall soon put things right with a neat headed finish at the back post 5 minutes after the break. The domination continued and they eventually doubled the lead as A Almohamady picked out Kamal, who danced inside two challenges and squeezed the ball in at the near post. Ekani hit the post late on, before the referee awarded the visitors an undeserved penalty. But Pyramids eased to a 2-1 win.
Pyramids FC won the Egyptian Premier League for just the 3rd time and 2nd time in 3 years!
Pyramids went on to win the Premier League by 4 points, finishing on 69 points after 21 wins, 6 draws and just 1 defeat, the same total of losses as Zamalek. They scored 62 and conceded just 15 times. Ekani was the top scorer with a new league record 21 in 27, closely followed by Fall with 16 in 26 and, strangely, 22-year-old Pyramids loanee Mohamed Mostafa, who scored 15 in 24 for Masar. Kamal led the league with another record 19 assists, 126 key passes, which was 38 more than nearest challenger Ekani, and 42 chances created, and the wide man was the best player in the league with a 7.63 rating, ahead of Ekani (7.47) and Fall (7.36).
Pyramids Celebrate Egyptian Title
Mahtal was delighted with his side’s efforts to overcome the Egyptian big two and lift yet another domestic title. Ekani was easily their star man this season, scoring 28 goals with 14 assists in 33 games. His strike partners also impressed, with Fall scoring 17 with 10 assists and Kamal delivering a club-high 21 assists and 12 goals. But they were heavily reliant on that trio for their goal outputs.
Ordinarily, Mahtal would have no second thoughts about resigning from his job fresh from winning the league title. However, he believed that Pyramids had a good shot at competing for the CAF Champions League, so he had half a mind to stay in New Cairo for a second season and a first proper shot at continental glory.
Would Mahtal stay in Egypt? Or would he go in search of pastures new? Join us on Friday to find out!
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