Mo Salah joins a wild street party in Vancouver after Egypt’s historic victory
On Sunday evening, the streets of downtown Vancouver were completely transformed. Thousands of ecstatic fans clad in red shirts and waving Egyptian flags turned the Canadian night into a wall of sound.
With horns blaring and drums beating rhythmically, the massive celebration echoed off the downtown buildings. To anyone walking by, the atmosphere in front of BC Place felt exactly like the Cairo International Stadium.
At the very core of it Mohamed Salah cost historical madness. Just hours after overseeing a breathless 3-1 victory over New Zealand, the Egypt captain bypassed the standard post-match formalities and celebrated directly with the diaspora in the streets. Videos quickly went viral, showing the 34-year-old talisman grinning widely, surrounded by a sea of ecstatic fans, soaking in a moment almost a century in the making.
When the team bus pulled up outside the team’s base, head coach Hossam Hassan broke protocol and allowed his players to descend into the crowd outside the hotel. Within seconds, a sea of ecstatic supporters swarmed the Egypt captain, hoisting a beaming Salah onto their shoulders and repeatedly tossing him into the air to celebrate his winning heroics.
The victory marked Egypt’s first-ever victory in a FIFA World Cup final and ended an agonizing 92-year wait that stretched back to their tournament debut in 1934. The raw emotional release in the stadium matched the weight of that history. In the 10th minute of stoppage time, with Egypt desperately defending their advantage, the traveling support whistled incessantly, pleading with the referee to end the tension. When the final whistle blew, a deafening roar rang out through the stadium as head coach Hossam Hassan circled the pitch, tightly draped in the national flag.
“My feelings are exactly the same as the feelings of the Egyptian people because I am one of them,” an emotional Hassan reflected afterwards. “I told the players at half-time: We are playing in Egypt. The stadium was so full it really felt like Cairo.”
It was made all the sweeter by the fact that the win required a lot of recovery. Egypt looked completely out of sorts in a slow first half and fell behind to a 15th-minute header from New Zealand defender Finn Surman. Faced with a disastrous result, Hassan gave a wild pep talk at half-time.
The response was immediate and devastating, led by Salah. Deployed in an analytical central role behind Omar Marmoush, the winger took control. Mostafa Ziko equalized in the 58th minute before Salah clinically swept home a reverse pass from Ziko to complete the turnaround. A late corner from Salah allowed Trzguet to head home a definitive third to seal the historic points.
The group then moved off the pitch to a raucous dressing room where a shirtless Salah danced with his teammates and raised a giant portable speaker into the air. With four points from two matches, Egypt are now proudly at the top of Group G.
A flight to the knockout stages is in sight, but for one night in British Columbia, it was simply a celebration of a redefined legacy.
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Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
22 Jun 2026 15:56 IST