Salah Ends the Wait: Egypt Claim First-Ever World Cup Win After 92 Years

For Mohamed Salah — and for an entire nation — the long, painful wait is finally over. At the ninth time of asking, Egypt have their first World Cup victory, and it was their talisman who dragged them there.

A commanding second-half showing from the Egyptian King against New Zealand powered the Pharaohs to a historic 3-1 win, leaving them on the verge of reaching the last 32. Salah broke the deadlock in the 67th minute — after Egypt had recovered from a shock early opener from the Kiwis — before whipping in the corner that Trezeguet headed home to put the result beyond doubt.

It had not been a smooth start to the tournament for the 34-year-old. A flat display in the opening draw with Belgium was followed by a quiet first half against New Zealand, and the doubts were creeping back in. Then, just as his personal World Cup nightmares looked set to repeat themselves, Salah stepped up — joining Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane on the list of superstars to leave their mark on this World Cup.

After a forgettable 2018 campaign and the heartbreak of missing out on Qatar four years later, Egypt's finest player has at last delivered on the biggest stage. And he knows the job is nearly done: a single point against Iran will carry his country into the next round — and they may not even need it.

Bust-ups, injuries and old ghosts

The road here was anything but kind. Salah's club future remains unsettled after a difficult final season at Liverpool, which saw him fall out with then-manager Arne Slot before confirming his summer departure. Linked with clubs around the world, he chose to park all of it and pour his focus into righting Egypt's past wrongs.

Those wrongs run deep. In 2018, a race against injury left him on the bench for the opening defeat to Uruguay; his penalty was only a consolation in a 3-1 loss to hosts Russia, and a humiliating defeat to Saudi Arabia followed. The fallout was bitter — Salah publicly criticised Egypt's FA over disrupted preparations, with reports he came close to walking away from international football altogether.

Failure to qualify for Qatar deepened the gloom, and after 45 flat minutes on Sunday it looked as though the misery would drag on. Manager Hossam Hassan had even spoken before kick-off to deny a rift with Salah after substituting him against Belgium. Instead, with the Iran game looming as a last-chance saloon, the forward took the game into his own hands and set off celebrations among Egyptian fans across the globe.

How the comeback unfolded

In front of 52,497 at BC Place in Vancouver, New Zealand dominated possession in the first half and made it count. Their breakthrough arrived after 15 minutes, when defender Finn Surman was left completely unmarked to head in from a corner, and Egypt went in at the break trailing and short of ideas.

The second half was a different story. Egypt raised the tempo, pinned the All Whites deeper and levelled on 58 minutes when Mostafa Ziko, also unmarked, nodded in Mohamed Hany's cross. Nine minutes later came the moment the country had waited for: Salah traded passes with Ziko and swept a left-footed finish past goalkeeper Max Crocombe. With eight minutes left, his corner found Trezeguet, whose diving header settled it. New Zealand coach Darren Bazeley admitted his side simply could not reproduce their first-half level once Egypt stepped it up.

It also put right the frustration of the opener in Seattle, where Emam Ashour's first international goal had Egypt ahead against Belgium until a Mohamed Hany own goal midway through the second half cost them a maiden victory.

Nine matches, 92 years

To understand why this result landed so heavily in Cairo, look at the record books. Egypt were the first African and Middle Eastern side to play at a World Cup, in Italy in 1934, but their stay lasted a single afternoon: a 4-2 defeat to Hungary in Naples, despite two goals from Abdulrahman Fawzi.

It took 56 years to return. At Italia 90, Mahmoud El-Gohary's side drew 1-1 with the Netherlands and 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland before a 1-0 loss to England sent them home. Then came Russia 2018 under Héctor Cúper — three games, three defeats. Sunday's win came in Egypt's ninth World Cup match, and Salah's strike, following his two goals in 2018, also made him the country's all-time leading scorer at the finals, moving past Fawzi.

The history runs through the dugout, too. As a player, Hossam Hassan is Egypt's record goalscorer with 69 international goals and three Africa Cup of Nations titles, and it was his winner against Algeria in Cairo on 17 November 1989 that ended that 56-year wait and sent Egypt to Italia 90. He took charge in February 2024, replacing Rui Vitória after a winless Africa Cup of Nations campaign ended in a last-16 exit to DR Congo.

"He stood up for his country"

Salah was a superstar at Liverpool. In Egypt, he exists on another plane entirely — every touch met with a roar, every appearance carrying the weight of a nation's hopes.

Sunday's strike was his 68th goal in 118 caps, leaving him just one short of Hassan's all-time scoring record — and few will have mattered more, ending a 92-year wait for a World Cup win. No player has been involved in more shots in a single game at this tournament: five of his own, and five more created for teammates — and he had 13 touches in the New Zealand penalty area. At 34, he also became Egypt's oldest World Cup goalscorer and the oldest African player on record to score and provide an assist in the same World Cup match.

It was a fitting reward for a player who carried Egypt to North America. Salah scored nine goals in the qualifying campaign, including both in the 3-0 win over Djibouti in Casablanca on 8 October 2025 that sealed top spot in Group A and a fourth World Cup appearance for his country.

Ex-Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou agreed, telling ITV: "If there was any doubt about Mo's impact on this team, you can still see it. It will give them enormous belief. They had to deal with adversity and their big player stood up — and that will give them big confidence. You need your big players to perform to progress."

His standing back home is hard to overstate; he has worn the senior shirt for 14 years, and even government ministers have intervened over his fitness. "I even had calls from Egypt's Minister of Health," recalls national team doctor Mohamed Aboud, remembering the shoulder injury Salah suffered in Liverpool's 2018 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid that threatened his place in that summer's World Cup.

Yet for all his Premier League glory — titles in 2019-20 and 2024-25 — a trophy with the national team has eluded him. The generation before his swept three straight Africa Cup of Nations crowns between 2006 and 2010; since then there have been only two final defeats, to Cameroon in 2017 and Senegal in 2021. This victory does not erase all of that — but it does banish one of Egypt's oldest ghosts.