CAF Confederations Cup - All You Need to Know about Gor Mahia’s Egyptian Opponents ENPPI

ENPPI's Mohamed Shabaan, right, in action

ENPPI is an abbreviation for Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries, an oil and gas company formed in 1978 and one of the largest engineering companies in Egypt, Middle East and North Africa for petroleum, gas, petrochemicals, power and other related industries

The football team, ENPPI club was formed in 1980 and played in the lower leagues of Egyptian football before they were promoted to the Egyptian Premier League in the 2002-2003 season.

The club is sponsored by its parent company ENPPI as well as Adidas and McDonald’s. 

They currently lead the Group 1 standings in the Egyptian league tied on 12 points with Al Ahly who beat them 2-1 in their most recent match last Sunday. ENPPI however have played 7 matches, one more than Al-Ahly. Zamalek lead Group 2 on 18 points, 3 ahead of second-placed Ismaily. The top two teams in each group will be involved in a championship playoff.

They are managed by 48-year-old Tarek El Ashry, a retired Egypt international who is widely credited as the man who introduced the 4-4-2 style of football in Egyptian football. He was appointed in May last year and his contract expires on June 30^th 2013.

The Cairo-based club play their home matches at the Petro Sport Stadium in New Cairo and average an attendance of 3,000 fans despite the stadium having an all-seated capacity of 25,000.

They have won two titles in their history. They won the 2005 Egyptian Cup after beating Al Ittihad El-lskandary by a solitary goal from Magdy Abdel Aate in extra time. They repeated the same feat in 2011 after a stunning 2-1 win over Zamalek at Cairo International Stadium.

Their best performance in the Egyptian Premier League was in the 2004-05 season when they finished runners-up to 36-time champions Al-Alhly. They trailed the champions by a massive 31 points!

They played in the 2006 CAF Champions League but were eliminated at the preliminary round by Saint George SA of Ethiopia.

This is their third appearance in the CAF Confederation Cup having featured in 2007 where they were eliminated in the first round and in 2009 where they were bundled out at the semifinals by Malian club and eventual champions Stade Malien.

The club is mostly made of local based players with the only outcasts being Mozambican defender Mano and Ivorian Vincent Die Foneye.

Some of the notable Egyptian footballers who have played for the club include current Hull City loanee Ahmed Elmohamady, Samir Sabry and 2-time Africa Nations Cup winner Amr Zaki who is still with the club and one man Gor Mahia would better keep an eye on.

And That's thesteifmastertake!!