YOYO MAHDY hopes to one day play in Egypt again — but for now he is targeting promotion at home. Striker Mahdy, 27, will run out for Treaty United against Cobh Ramblers tomorrow evening as the League of Ireland First Division kicks off. Treaty are not among the favourites but, with four play-off places on offer, Mahdy is confident that Tommy Barrett’s side can be in the reckoning. The prospect of going up is one of the reasons why he is playing on home soil, having experienced a season in Egypt before returning to the LOI in 2023. Mahdy’s family are Egyptian and he considers himself Egyptian-Irish having moved to Blanchardstown in Dublin when he was a toddler and then to Limerick as a teenager. When the opportunity came up to join Olympic Alexandria in 2022, he jumped at the chance to sample football abroad.
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Mahdy told SunSport: “It was a completely different experience. “Seeing as I’m from there originally, the adjustment wasn’t as big because I speak Arabic fluently. “But it took some adjustment because it’s a different league, a different style of play, but it’s something I think that stands to me. “It was second division but over there everything is full-time, from the top flight to the fourth division.
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“The population is 100million and football is the main sport. "It was a real eye-opener see what a country that only focuses on football could look like.” Being a football-mad nation meant playing games proved a different experience, with Olympic regularly in action in front of 10,000 sell-outs. Mahdy added: “Because there is high security at the games, the crowds arrive really early so it’s pretty much full for a warm-up, which is something I wasn’t used to definitely. “The pitches weren’t as good as Ireland but the way of playing football was different and a new experience learning from new coaches. I think I came home a better player, definitely.” And having joined Bray Wanderers initially on his return in 2023, he did go all the way home in 2024 to Treaty, the club formed for the 2021 season after Limerick City’s demise. He said: “I was in Blanch but we moved to Limerick when I was 13 so I’d consider Limerick my home. “It’s my hometown club now. I played for Tommy Barrett before with Limerick’s Under-19s
before going to UCD , and I watched closely what he was doing with Treaty. “In their first season, I was with Shels and they were they were the only club we didn’t beat that year. "Tommy has done a great job and I wanted to work with him again as a professional.” Mahdy believes Treaty can surprise people this season, and reckons the First Division should be watched closely. He added: “I think it’s going to be an open league, there is no real runaway favourites like last year. “I think going under the radar suits us. I feel we’ve got stronger this year where a lot of lads are coming from abroad and are probably unknown in the league. "I think we’ll be a surprise package, definitely.”
