Fresh from winning Africa’s most prestigious league title with Egypt’s Pyramids FC, most commentators fully expected the typically disloyal Trebor Mahtal to resign from his position. However, after surveying potential roles available in the job market, the Zambian decided to stay in Egypt with the primary target of competing for the African Champions League for the first time.
Mahtal moved to strengthen his squad, with a focus on Egyptian players given the limit of 5 foreigners in matchday squads. Having lost star centre back Manga for £6m last season, they also lost his replacement Ali Moslem to Saudi for his release fee of £1.5m. Mahtal sold 4 more players for £400k and released 7 more, freeing up £10k a week in wages. And that gave him a transfer kitty of £4m with around £14k spare in the wage budget.
Mahtal replaced the centre backs with Mohamed Tawfik for £1.8m from Wadi Degla. He also snapped up defensive midfielder Nader Ali, hard-working midfielder Mohamed Fayez and rapid full back Ahmed Mousa on free transfers from Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahly and Zamalek. The attack was bolstered by the return of Mohamed Mostafa, who scored 15 in 24 on loan at Masar last season and Mahtal promoted 17-year-old midfielder Walid El Sheshiny and 18-year-old attackers Mohamed Abdel Hamid and Amro Abdelrahman.
Mahtal stuck with the same shape as last season, but tweaked some of the player roles. Joseph Martin continues to retrain in midfield was a wide central midfielder in behind the lethal attacking trio of Mohamed Kamal, Mamadou Fall and Valéry Ekani, and Tawfik comes in at the back alongside Welcome De Kock (which is still the best newgen name ever) with Mousa competing with Ali Elmohamady at left back.
Champions League Quest Begins
The Champions League has won by Zamalek, who Pyramids beat to the Egyptian title in the last two seasons, defeating Al-Ahly in last season’s final. So that gave Mahtal hope they could compete continentally. Pyramids’ Champions League campaign began with a preliminary round tie against Les Anges de Fatima from Central African Republic. Abdelrahman replaced the injured Kamal and scored on his debut in a club record 7-0 away rout led by Ekani and Martin braces. A week later, a Fall double eased them through 9-0 on aggregate. Next up was Ghana’s Attram de Visser in the first round, and Fall and Ekani earned a comfortable 2-0 home win before a poor away display was rescued by Fayez’s first goal for the club edging a 3-2 aggregate win.
That sent them into a tricky looking group alongside Libya’s Al-Ahli Tripoli, Espérance Tunis of Tunisia and Algerian side Amel Saad Olympic Chlef. The group began with a trip to Algeria, where an Ekani goal in each half inspired a comfortable 2-0 win. A week later, they entertained Al-Ahli and cruised to a 4-0 win through Kamal, A Elmohamady, Ekani and Tawfik. Several players were on international duty for a trip to Tunisia, but a Fall goal edged a 1-0 win before his brace wrapped up qualification with a 5-2 victory in Libya and a 3-0 win over Chlef wrapped up the group.
Pyramids drew MAS Fés in the quarter finals, and a dominant 3-1 win in Morocco led by El Sheshiny’s goal and assist was backed up by Fall and Ekani earning a 2-1 home victory. Elsewhere, Al-Ahly were knocked out on away goals by Algerian side WA Tlemcen and Zamalek lost 3-2 on aggregate to Espérance Tunis. The first team were rested for a league game before the semi and that worked to devastating effect as, despite WA Tlemcen scoring their first shot after 30 secons, a Fall hat trick led a 6-1 demolition. And Kamal’s goal earned a more sedate 1-0 to ease them into their second Champions League Final and first since winning it in 2025.
Mahtal’s First-Ever Title Defence
Pyramids were third favourites to defend their title with odds of 10/1, behind Zamalek (15/8) and Al-Ahly (11/4). The league season began with a narrow 2-1 win at home to El Gouna decided by Mousa’s first goal for the club, while both their big rivals suffered surprise opening day defeats to ENPPI and El Minya. Al-Ahly and Zamalek drew in midweek, before Ekani nicked a 1-0 at El Mokawloon and Al-Ahly lost again at home to Ismaily. Mahtal rotated the team and Pyramids struggled at home to Masar, but Ekani came off the bench to bag a 9-minute hat trick and earn a 3-1 victory. They established their dominance as Martin and Ekani downed Al-Ahly 2-1, before drawing 1-1 with Zamalek and a rotated side claining a wild 8-3 win at Ghazl El-Mahalla, in which El Sheshiny scored twice and Mostafa bagged a hat trick.
Ekani’s form was recognised by a major award as he won the African Inter-Club Player of the Year for 2039. Mahtal boycotted the domestic cups to focus on the big competitions, and they went on to win the Regular Season by a huge 10 points from Zamalek. They began the Champions Playoff with a huge game at home to Zamalek and, despite going behind after 15 minutes, they were easily the better side and edged a 5-goal thriller with goals by Kamal, Mousa against his former club and Ekani’s 70th-minute winner.
That big victory moved them 12 points clear with 8 more games of the Champions Playoff remaining. A couple of defeats followed as first teamers were rested for continental focuses, but they returned to defeat Al-Ahly 2-0 with goals by Martin and Fall. Ekani and Kamal earned the same scoreline at Masar and then a 3-0 win at home to Pharco, which wrapped up consecutive Premier League titles.
Pyramids went on to win the league by 10 points from Zamalek, finishing on 69 points after 22 wins, 3 draws and 3 defeats, scoring a league-high 69 goals and conceding 26. Ekani was the 2nd top scorer with 19 in 24, only behind Ghazl’s 20-year-old striker John Kameni with an impressive 26 in 28, but he topped the league with 13 assists, followed by Kamal and Fall (10 and 9), and was the best player with a new record 7.64 rating and 9 MOTM awards.
CAF Champions League Final
Ridiculously, the African Champions League Final is played over two legs, and Pyramids faced Espérance Tunis after they defeated Simba SC 3-0 on aggregate. The first leg was in Tunisia on Mahtal’s 56th birthday, which was also oddly a Monday, and goals by Ekani and Kamal edged a 2-1 victory. A week later, also on a Monday, they fell behind to Tunis’ first shot. They dominated the first half by 9 shots to 1 but somehow went in 1-0 down. Mahtal laid into the team but it made no difference as they continued to miss chances for fun and it finished 1-0.
Unlike the semis, there were no away goals, so it went straight to penalties. Ekani stepped up first and scored before Mahmoud Ahmed saved Tunis’ first penalty. Kamal also missed, Tunis levelled up but Ahmed also saved their 3rd spotkick. Fayez then missed and Tunis put their 4th wide, giving De Kock the chance to be a hero. And he smashed it down the middle to claim Africa’s biggest title.
Pyramids FC and Trebor Mahtal were Champions of Africa!
Ekani won Champions League player of the season after finishing as the top goalscorer with 11 goals and 6 assists in 13 games at a 7.65 average rating. And Ahmed, Tawfik, Kamal, Martin, Fall and Ekani were named in the Champions League Dream Team.
Mahtal Celebrates African Glory
From an unknown Zambian wannabe and a slow reputation grind to reaching the pinnacle of African football, Trebor Mahtal finally felt like he’d made his name. Mahtal stayed in Egypt with the ultimate ambition of claiming the African Champions League, so he was delighted to have achieved that goal.
The impressive Ekani was clearly their star man with a ridiculous 30 goals and 19 assists in 38 games. His attack partners Fall (17 goals and 12 assists) and Kamal (15 goals and 19 assists) also impressed, along with Mostafa (13 goals and 5 assists), Marrtin (8 goals and 13 assists) and the exciting El Sheshiny (7 goals and 6 assists).
Mahtal absolutely loved this exciting Pyramids squad. But, with two league titles and a continental success added to his CV, he knew it was time to depart Egypt. So, with a heavy heart, he tendered his resignation and went in search of a 12th and, with FM27 on the horizon, potentially final club on this African adventure.
Where would Mahtal wind up after leaving Pyramids? Join us on Monday to find out!
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