Degla’s Noha and Gihan Mamdouh - Twins in football!

Noha Mamdouh, scorer of the first goal ever in the history of TotalEnergies CAF Women’s Champions League, and her sister, Gihan Mamdouh, fell in love with football since they were five.

“We started playing with boys at our club, then my father got advised by the legendary Hossam Hassan that we should train with a team”, Gihan told CAFOnline.com.

Hossam Hassan, all-time Egypt’s top scorer himself used to play with his twin brother Ibrahim Hassan in their 20+ years professional career.

Gihan said their biggest challenge is to coordinate between their demanding education and their football career.

“We study architecture and it’s very challenging to keep up with it and commit to training at the same time, but we always keep trying. Of course, compromises happen, but we try our best to create a balance between them,” she explained.

“I’m very proud of my sister scoring the first goal ever of CAF WCL. I anticipated her placing it into the left of the net and told my mates on the bench so. And that’s what she did. We have that type of chemistry as twins” Gihan said proudly about her sister Noha.

“We were lucky enough to have our family’s support, as our father was a footballer too. Even our mother turned into a supporter of us when she saw how much we are good at football” Noha added.

When asked about the possibility of them playing against each other in the future, Gihan said “I think it would be difficult to play as opponents, but at the same time we’d anticipate each other’s moves.”

Noha added “I don’t think we’d be as strong individually as we are together. We understand each other very well which makes us both stronger”.

The twins sent a message to all young girls “Every girl should play what she wants, there’s nothing such as ‘Football is only for men’ you just need to be determined and never stop working on yourself. Don’t listen to destructive criticism and always try to learn more”. Gihan added “I always turn ‘impossible’ into ‘I’m possible’ that’s my motto”.

Finally, the half Egyptian half Italian twins expressed their interest to play abroad, especially in Italy, after achieving their dream of being champions of this tournament.