2007 Teams - Al Hilal Team Profile

Al Hilal Al Sudany Club for Physical Education are competing in the group phase of the MTN CAF Champions League for the first time but are no strangers to the continent’s top club competition.

Al Hilal were runners-up in 1987 and 1992 in the final of the old format African Champions Cup, losing to Al Ahli of Egypt and Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca respectively.

They resume a long standing rivalry with Al Ahli in the group phase this year, holding the distinction of being one of only two clubs to have beaten Al Ahli at their home ground in Cairo in African club competition. It was a feat achieved in 2004 when Al Hilal eliminated the Egyptian champions from the competition but then failed in the next round to make it to the group phase.

Al Hilal was founded by students from Gordon Memorial College in 1930 and have won 26 Sudan league titles and four Sudan Cups since. They were also runners up in the Arab Champions Cup in 2003.

The club currently supplies 10 players to Sudan’s national squad, which has qualified for the 2008 MTN Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time in more than 30 years. Coached by Brazilian Ricardo Ferreira Heron, they also have imports from Mozambique and Nigeria on their books.