In this paper, I offer a cultural history of football in colonial Egypt that departs from mainstream readings of football and colonialism. Scholars studying the history of football in British colonies have often viewed the spread of the sport as a byproduct of British imperialism and narrowly focused on its role in anti-colonial struggles. The history of Egyptian football, I argue, is not merely a story of British domination, and the game’s popularity is not only a byproduct of British imperialism and its cultural venture in Egypt. In carrying out this argument, I examine the history of early football clubs in Egypt and bring forward the cosmopolitan landscape of sports. The data for this project build upon interviews with families of expatriate founders of football in Egypt and their histories as retained in their own material archives – letters, papers, photographs, and memorabilia, as well as in their own memories. Information will also be gathered from the Egyptian Gazette, the Egyptian Mail, and Al-Ahram, these newspapers are known for their coverage of culture in Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Piecing together these materials underscores how Italian and Greek communities make the story of Egyptian football a diverse and cosmopolitan one. The study is situated within the literature on sports history from the late nineteenth century to mid twentieth century. My theoretical framework builds upon and challenges theories of nationalism and football in the region and highlights the heterogeneity and cosmopolitanism of the game’s history. The paper promises to add to our stock of knowledge on sports and imperialism in British colonies. It offers a new perspective and lens to studying the history of football in Egypt.