Marwan Mohamed Hassan Youssef Sarhan (in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: مروان سرحان; born May 2, 1992) is an Egyptian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for

Al Ahly Al-Ahly Sporting Club (), commonly known as Al-Ahly, is an Egyptian professional sports club based in Cairo, Egypt. The club is mainly known for its professional football team which currently plays in the Egyptian Premier League, the highest ...

of the

Egyptian Basketball Premier League The Egyptian Basketball Premier League () is the top professional basketball division of the Egyptian basketball league system. Administered by the Egyptian Basketball Federation (EBBFED), it is contested by 16 teams, with the two lowest-placed tea ...

. He played college basketball for

Western Oregon Wolves The Western Oregon Wolves (also WOU Wolves) are the athletic teams that represent Western Oregon University, located in Monmouth, Oregon, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Associat ...

(WOU), and spent his first college season at the

University of Charleston The University of Charleston (UC) is a private university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. It also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley. History The school was founded in 1888 as the Barboursville Semin ...

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

as a sophomore. He plays at the

power forward The power forward (PF), also known as the four, is one of the five traditional Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. Traditionally, power forwards have played a role similar to center (basketball), centers and are typi ...

position and stands at . Sarhan first played for Egyptian side

Smouha Smouha () is an upper-class district in the centre of Alexandria, Egypt. It is home to the Security Directorate of Alexandria and the Smouha Sporting Club, Smouha's central roundabout (Victor Emmanuel Square) connects between other areas in Alexa ...

. He has played for the Egypt national team at both the youth and senior levels, and led the U18 team to a gold medal at the 2010 FIBA U18 AfroBasket. With

, he won the BAL championship in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, three Egyptian Mortabet League titles (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), three

Egyptian Premier League The Egyptian Premier League (), also known as the Nile League () for sponsorship reasons, after the addition of title sponsor Nile Developments, is a professional association football league in Egypt and the highest level of the Egyptian football ...

titles (2022, 2023, 2025), two

Egyptian Cup The Egypt Cup (also known as the Egyptian FA Cup and formerly as the King Farouk Cup) is the main knockout football cup competition in Egypt. It is the oldest club competition in Africa. The first team to win the trophy was Zamalek in 1922. Al A ...

titles (2022, 2023), one Egypt Super Cup title (2023), one Arab Club Competitions title (2021) and one Cairo League title (2021).

Early life

Sarhan was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, Egypt to Mohamed and Azza Sarhan. He has two siblings, a brother named Gasser and a sister named Miran. In his childhood, Sarhan started playing basketball at the age of 6, after his father encouraged both him and his brother to play the sport. He began his career for

Smouha SC Smouha Sporting Club (), simply known as Smouha, is an Egyptian sports club based in Alexandria and the biggest club in the world in space and number of athletes, with 168 feddans in the Smouha city branch, and 208 feddans in the Borg El Arab ci ...

for which he played 12 years. In 2011, he represented

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

on the world stage Fiba World Cup U19 in

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

, and subsequently moved across the Atlantic to begin his college basketball career at the

. After one season, Sarhan transferred to

Western Oregon University Western Oregon University (WOU) is a public university in Monmouth, Oregon, United States. It was originally established in 1856 by Disciples of Christ pioneers as Monmouth University. Subsequent names included Oregon State Normal School, Oreg ...

, where he completed his remaining two years of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

eligibility.

Professional career

Following graduation from WOU, in 2015, Sarhan was signed to a 1-year contract with

. After four seasons with Smouha, Sarhan became the most expensive player in the history of Egyptian basketball, with the club valuing him at £E10 million, at the time of contract negotiation with

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

. Sarhan remained in Alexandria at that time, signing an extension to his contract, during which time he led his squad to their first ever international competition medal, bringing home a bronze medal in 2019 at the

FIBA Africa Basketball league The FIBA Africa Basketball League (formerly named the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup) was the highest caliber men's professional basketball competition for clubs until 2020, organized by the FIBA Africa and played by the champions of the league ...

(ABL), beating

JS Kairouan Jeunesse Sportive Kairouanaise (), known as JS Kairouan, Chabiba or simply JSK for short, is a Tunisian football club based in Kairouan. The club was founded in 1942 and its colours are green and white. Their home stadium, Hamda Laouani Stadi ...

58–69 in the bronze medal game. Sarhan shined at the

ABL ABL may refer to: Aviation * Airborne Laser, a weapons system designed for use by the United States military * Air Busan of South Korea (ICAO airline code) * IATA airport code for Ambler Airport in State of Alaska, USA Companies, groups, organiz ...

especially after knocking Al Ahly out in the quarter finals. In August 2021, Sarhan signed a four-year contract with Al Ahly of the

, who managed to buy out his contract for £E4 million. For

, the decision to pursue Sarhan proved to be correct, as he has been an instrumental player in the 13 championships that team has won in his first four seasons alone. Not only has his contribution brought success on the national level, but, Sarhan was also a part of the squad who represented the continent of Africa at the

2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup The 2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup was the 32nd edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. The tournament was held on 10 and 12 February 2023 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the Spanish island of Tenerife. It was the third time that the tourna ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. At the opening game of this competition,

defeated the NBA G-League Ignite 82–76, becoming the first African club to win a game in the competition's 33-year existence. Al Ahly was sent to fourth place with an 81–74 loss against Zhejiang Golden Bulls. Sarhan boasted a career high at the Arab Championships in Qatar (2023), recording 14 points, and shooting 75% from 3's against

Kuwait SC Kuwait Sports Club () is a Kuwaiti professional football club based in Kuwait City. Their football team has won Kuwait Premier League 19 times and has won over 50 trophies overall. The club plays in the Al Kuwait Sports Club Stadium located i ...

. In April 2024, he made his second appearance with Al Ahly at the BAL4. Sarhan_holding_trophy_for_the_Egyptian_Super_Cup

Sarhan was named the MVP for the Egypt Super Cup game in

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

after a great performance scoring 14 points and 5 rebounds in 11 minutes in a win over

64–60. It was

first Super Cup title. He was also named the MVP for the Egyptian Mortabet League 2023–24 after beating his old team (Smouha) in the finals.

International career

Sarhan represented

in the

2011 FIBA Under-19 World Championship The 2011 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Latvian: 2011. gada FIBA pasaules čempionāts līdz 19 gadu vecumam) was the 10th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested b ...

, where he averaged 6.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg and 71.4% ft. Also, represented

in the African World Cup Qualifier 2017, the AfroBasket Qualifiers 2020 and AfroBasket 2021 in Rwanda. Sarhan was set to play at the

2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 25 August to 10 September 2023. The tournament was the second to feature 32 teams and was hosted by multipl ...

with Egypt, before he withdraws due to family reasons.

College career statistics

During his time at WOU, Sarhan entered the contest with the third longest streak of made field goals in GNAC conference history with 15.

Awards and accomplishments

Club

Al Ahly

* Basketball Africa League championship: (

) * 3x

: (

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, 2025) * 2x

: (2022,

) *

Egyptian Super Cup The Egyptian Super Cup is Football in Egypt, Egyptian football's annual match contested between the champions of the Egyptian Premier League season and the holders of the Egypt Cup. If the Egyptian Premier League champions also won the Egypt Cup ...

: (2023) * 4x Egyptian Mortabet League: (2021,

, 2024) *

Arab Club Basketball Championship The Arab Club Championship is an annual basketball tournament for Arab teams. The competition is organised by the Arab Basketball Confederation (ABC). Each season is typically held in October and is held in one venue. The tournament typically featu ...

: (

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

) *

Cairo League The Cairo League was an Official Egyptian football tournament. Before the start of Egyptian Premier League in its current form, the main competition was the Egypt Cup which started in 1922. The first season was played in 1922–23 and was won by Z ...

: (2021)

= Smouha SC

= *

FIBA Africa Basketball League The FIBA Africa Basketball League (formerly named the FIBA Africa Clubs Champions Cup) was the highest caliber men's professional basketball competition for clubs until 2020, organized by the FIBA Africa and played by the champions of the league ...

Third place: (2019)

College

Western Oregon University

* GNAC Regular Season title Individual *

MVP (2023) * Egyptian Mortabet League MVP (2023)

Personal life

Marwan_Sarhan_and_Willie_Green_at_the_BWB

Sarhan was invited to be a part of the 18th

Basketball Without Borders Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organized by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA. It presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport ...

(BWB) Africa 2022 camp in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt as an assistant coach.

References

External links

*
Marwan Sarhan
at

RealGM RealGM.com is a sports website created in 2000. The site was originally a basketball site, but has since expanded its scope to provide information about American football, baseball, ice hockey and soccer. According to Alexa, the site ranked in th ...

Marwan Sarhan
at AfroBasket.com
Marwan Sarhan
at

{{Al Ahly 2023 BAL Champions 1992 births Basketball players from Alexandria Al Ahly basketball players Power forwards Smouha SC basketball players Living people Egyptian men's basketball players Egyptian expatriate basketball people in the United States Western Oregon Wolves men's basketball players 21st-century Egyptian sportsmen