Egypt’s new coach Ehab Galal promises to bring back glory days

Mahmoud Elassal , Sunday 8 May 2022

Egypt’s newly appointed national team coach Ehab Galal announced on Sunday that he is eager to replicate the achievements of previous coaches like Mahmoud El-Gohary and Hassan Shehata in a press conference at the Egyptian Football Association’s (EFA) headquarters.

Ehab Galal

 

The EFA appointed the 54-year-old coach after terminating its contract with Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz with mutual consent last April following the team’s failure to qualify to the World Cup.

“The success of previous coaches like Mahmoud El-Gohary and Hassan Shehata motivated me to accept the offer and trying to bring back the glory days,” said Galal.

The EFA also kept the previous assistant coaches in their positions, including Mohamed Shawki as a general manager, Ahmed Hossam as assistant coach, Essam El-Hadary as goalkeepers’ tactician, and Mohamed Aboul-Ela as the team’s doctor.

“I decided to keep the technical staff as it is without any changes,” Galal added.

Galal was shortlisted for national team coach back in 2019, however, Hossam El-Badry was appointed at the time instead.

The next mission for the national team will be the 2023 African Cup of Nations’ qualifiers, which will take place between 30 May and 14 June 2022, which means Galal’s first mission will be in less than two months.

“We will compete for the title of any tournaments we take part in, but first, we have to concentrate on the 2023 African Cup of Nations’ qualifiers,” he said.

“We will try to play a friendly on 13 June to prepare the players, and it’s expected to be played with the foreign based players,” the coach added.

“We won’t be building up a new squad, however, we will be testing combinations between experienced players and juniors after finishing the African qualifiers.”

“Our second mission is to train 60 players to make the national team squad as well as ushering in a new generation,” Galal said.

“I will be picking 40 domestic players for the coming two games without the foreign-based players and then won’t make any more changes in the squad [for now],” he added.

“Priority will be given to players who secure regular spots in their teams’ squads.”

Galal — who is taking charge of a national team for the first time — has become one of the best coaches in the country in recent years after his notable performance with Maqassa from 2014 until 2017 and his coaching of Cairo giants Zamalek.

He then joined Pyramids FC at the beginning of the current season and achieved good results with the club, given that they are third in the domestic league’s standings, however, they were eliminated from the knockout stage of the African Confederation Cup.

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