Al Ahly take new signings to Spain as Monsef Bekrar joins camp soon

Al Ahly have travelled to Spain for their pre-season training camp with new arrivals Soufiane Benjdida, Oktay Abdallah and Ali Mahmoud included in the squad, while Algeria forward Monsef Bekrar will join the delegation within two days.

The Egyptian club’s camp will run from 6 to 20 August as head coach Hussein Ammouta prepares his team for the new season.

Ahmed Khaled Kabaka, who has returned from a loan spell, is also part of the travelling group. Bekrar is expected to join the squad after a maximum of two days.

Al Ahly’s squad for the camp is:

Goalkeepers: Mohamed El Shenawy, Mostafa Shobeir, Hamza Alaa.

Defenders: Yassin Marei, Yasser Ibrahim, Hady Riyad, Mohamed Hany, Amr El Gazar, Ahmed Eid, Ahmed Nabil Koka, Youssef Belammari, Karim El Debes, Karim Fouad.

Midfielders: Marwan Attia, Emam Ashour, Ahmed Reda, Ahmed Khaled Kabaka, Omar Sayed Moawad, Mohamed Magdy Afsha, Ali Mahmoud, Omar El Saai, Taher Mohamed, Hussein El Shahat, Mohamed Abdullah, Ahmed Sayed Zizo, Achraf Bencharki.

Forwards: Oktay Abdallah, Soufiane Benjdida, Monsef Bekrar, Mohamed Raafat.

The headline fixture of the trip will see Al Ahly face Barcelona at Camp Nou on 19 August in the 61st edition of the Joan Gamper Trophy.

Although the competition is a friendly tournament, it is one of the most established events in the European football calendar. It is also Barcelona’s annual celebration at the start of the season and the occasion when the Catalan club officially presents its squad to supporters.

The tournament was created in 1966 by Enric Llaudet, who was Barcelona’s president at the time, in honour of the club’s Swiss founder, Joan Gamper. Gamper established Barcelona in 1899 and laid the foundations for a club that would later become one of the biggest in world football.

The competition has been held every year since then and has become a traditional part of Barcelona’s preparations before the start of the campaign. It originally featured four teams, with semi-finals, a final and a third-place match.

Barcelona changed the format in 1997, reducing the event to a single match between the home side and an invited opponent. That remains the format today.

Al Ahly are also scheduled to play Badalona, a club competing in the fifth tier of Spanish football, in Barcelona on 12 August. The match forms part of the coaching staff’s plan to prepare the squad for the new season.

Badalona’s ownership recently transferred to Egyptian businessman Amir Zoheir Grana.

Al Ahly’s board, led by chairman Mahmoud El Khatib, has appointed board member Tarek Kandil to lead the football delegation in Spain. The club published photographs of the squad’s journey, featuring key players including Mohamed El Shenawy, Emam Ashour, Ahmed Sayed Zizo and Marwan Attia.

The club will return to Egypt on a private aircraft after the Barcelona match because of the limited time before the domestic league begins. The Egyptian Premier League starts on 21 August.

Al Ahly begin their league campaign against Eastern Company ENPPI on Sunday, 23 August, and will finish the first round against Wadi Degla.