Ahly have appointed Abdel Aziz Abdel–Shafy ‘Zizo’, one of the club icons, as a caretaker coach after sacking Fathi Mabourk following the team’s recent poor results, the club announced late on Monday.
“The board has decided after an urgent meeting to thank both head coach Fathi Mabrouk and football sector manager Alaa Abdel-Sadek for their efforts in the last season,” Ahly said in a statement on their official website.
“Zizo will be a temporary coach until the hiring of a new foreign tactician,” the statement added.
Chief of Ahly's youth sector, Zizo, will be in charge of Ahly until the derby match against archrivals Zamalek in the Super Cup. The match will be played on 15 October in the UAE.
Mabrouk, who succeded Juan Carlos Garrido last May after the Spanish coach was sacked, has come under fire following Ahly's exit from the Confederation Cup semis.
The Reds slumped to a stunning 4-3 home defeat by South Africa's Orlando Pirates on Sunday to wave goodbye to the competition they won last season with a 5-3 aggregate defeat.
Under Mabrouk, Ahly failed to win a major trophy for the first time since 2004. They lost both the Egyptian Premier League and the Egypt Cup to archrivals Zamalek.
Zizo, 62, had a previous spell as a caretaker coach following the resignation of Hossam El-Badry in 2010.
The former Egypt and Ahly striker has plenty of experience in the Egyptian league, having coached Arab Contractors, Ittihad of Alexandria, Masry and Suez Cement.
New candidates
On Monday night, Egypt’s state news Agency MENA reported that Portuguese coach Jose Vitor dos Santos Peseiro is in the running for the vacant Ahly job but no deal is yet in place.
Peseiro, who started his coaching career in 1992, was one of Carlos Queiroz’s assistant coaches at Real Madrid and was part of Manchester United's backroom staff.
Peseiro is not the only candidate for the Ahly job as the names of German coach Thomas Schaaf, former Werder Bremen coach and Marcos Bakita are also on the table.
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