Egypt’s Al-Ahly Club Increases Investment In Its Women’s Soccer Team

• The CAF announced requiring a women’s team for clubs to obtain a professional club license and play regional competitions.
• Dimitri Lipoff was announced as head coach.
• Menna Tarek, Nadine Ghazi, and Sally Mansour are among the new signings.

Al-Ahly Club is participating in the Egyptian Women’s Premier League in the upcoming 2024-2025 season, marking their first appearance in the league that has been active since 1999.

How Did It All Start?

Al-Ahly Board of Directors is intensively investing in its women’s soccer team, after it became one of the main requirements for obtaining a professional club license, by the Egyptian and African Football Associations “CAF”.

The club will participate in the 2024-2025 season of the Women’s Football League, to comply with the demands of the African Football Confederation (CAF).

The CAF announced that in order for clubs to participate in the regional African tournaments, they have to create a women’s department. This has become one of the criterias to obtain a professional club license.

The club’s first decision was to appoint Shady Mohamed, the former men’s team captain, as the sporting director of the women’s soccer department. Mohamed’s first mission was appointing a head coach, and his choice fell on Dimitri Lipoff.

Dimitri Lipoff As Head Coach, Hakima Boucetta As The Assistant Coach

Al-Ahly club announced, in a statement published on their website, the appointment of French coach Dimitri Lipoff as the technical director of the women’s soccer team for the upcoming 3 years.

The 40-year-old worked as an assistant coach for the technical staff of the Chinese women’s team Dalian Yingbo FC, where he won 4 championships, in addition to 2 bronze medals in the cup during the period from December 2016 to November 2018.

He then left to continue working as an assistant coach for the Chinese women’s soccer team Jiangsu Suning during the period from February 2019 to February 2020, where he won 4 championships with them.

He continued working in China at the WFC Wuhan Chedu Jiangda Academy as an assistant coach and manager during the period from February 2020 to January 2022, where he won 2 championships with the women’s team.

The big move was in July 2022 when he became head of Napoli’s women’s team, before moving to Morocco and becoming the Moroccan women’s Olympic team coach during the period from July 2023 to July 2024.

Lastly, during the last 6 months, he trained the Moroccan women’s under-20 team.

What Did Lipoff Say?

In his first statement following his appointment as Al-Ahly head coach, Lipoff showed excitement with “this upcoming exciting chapter of my life.”

The French added: “When Al-Ahly contacted me, I did not hesitate to accept the offer. I agreed immediately and did not set any conditions during the negotiations.”

“My contract is for 3 years with Al-Ahly and I hope that the journey will continue for a long time with the club of the century.”

Algeria’s Boucetta Joined His Staff

The club also announced appointing former Algerian women’s national soccer team player, Hakima Boucetta, as an assistant coach in the technical staff of the French coach.

The fact that Boucetta is fluent in more than one language helped make this choice easy. Being fluent in French means she will facilitate the communication between Lipoff and the players, instead of eventually counting on a translator.

Hakima Boucetta is considered one of the best Algerian players throughout history. She played for the Abu Dhabi team in the Emirates, and won a number of championships with them, before switching to a managerial career where she began coaching her former team, before having spells with Smouha (Egypt) and Al-Amal (Saudi Arabia).

The New Signings

Preparing for the upcoming season, Al-Ahly is as active as ever in this summer transfer window. To date, they announced signing with 7 local players as well as 2 foreigners:

The Locals

• Nadine Ghazi – Former captain of Pyramids (Egypt)
• Thuraya Ashraf – Former player of Al-Amiriya (Egypt)
• Amal Nasser – Former player of Al-Maadi and Al-Yakht (Egypt)
• Menna Tarek – Former player of Al-Wahda (Saudi Arabia)
• Sally Mansour – Former player of Al-Taqaddom (Saudi Arabia)
• Amani Samir – Former player of Abha (Saudi Arabia)
• Maha El-Dmerdash – Former player of Jeddah Club (Saudi Arabia)

The Foreigners

In addition to the local players, Al-Ahly is active on the foreigners front with two signings so far.

The club first announced the signing of the American Mia Leneice Darden who was later joined by Serbian national team defender Aleksandra Đorđević.