Hossam Hassan: Salah and Hamza benefited from the World Cup, so why do we turn to foreign coaches?
"I am not looking at a specific age or a particular team"
Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan says the reception President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi gave the delegation after their 2026 World Cup campaign felt like a medal on his chest, insisting that every word the President spoke carried a specific and important purpose.
Egypt bowed out of the 2026 World Cup in the round of 16, losing 3-2 to Argentina.
Speaking at the Football Association's celebration honouring the national teams, Hassan added that the President had placed his trust in Egyptian talent and called for reliance on the Egyptian coach after the successes he has achieved.
Egypt, he affirmed, had brought the smile back to the faces of their fans. The supporters have rallied around the team again after its spirit, level and outstanding results.
The coaching staff enjoys full support from the Football Association's board, he explained, whether under the previous board chaired by Gamal Allam or the current one chaired by engineer Hany Abo Rida. That, he said, is a key reason behind the recent successes.
He saluted the Egyptian fans at home and abroad for their constant backing of the national team everywhere, stressing that they deserve to be fought for and made happy.
Criteria for selecting players
Hassan insists he picks players on their performance on the pitch and nothing else.
"My advice to the players of the youth national teams is that the national team is your first gateway to going professional," he said. "The club is important, but the national team is number 1."
He continued: "I do not look at a specific age or a particular team. Nothing draws my attention except performance on the pitch. It is not true that I came under pressure to call up Hamza Abdelkarim, the Barcelona player, to the Egypt national team for the 2026 World Cup, and the player benefited from his presence with the national team at the World Cup."
"My advice to the young players is to take Mohamed Salah as their role model," Hassan went on, "and I believe the Egypt captain benefited from his participation in the World Cup by playing in the number 10 or number 9 positions."
Other players benefited too, he said. "There are players who renewed their contracts with their clubs, and players whose value increased because of their participation in the World Cup. This is a natural thing and I am happy about it."
Turning to dual-nationality players, the Egypt coach said: "We are paying great attention to the professional players outside Egypt who hold dual nationality."
The foreign coach and Egyptian football
"Why is the tendency always to sign a foreign coach when I have very good Egyptian coaches?" he continued. "The foreign coach wants to work under ideal conditions and cannot deal with the conditions that exist, unlike the local coach."
His point was simple. "I mean that the coach who deserves to be there should be signed."
The big clubs in the Egyptian league lean too heavily on foreign coaches, Hassan argued.
"I am astonished when I find some clubs complaining about player fatigue," he said. "How can that be when every squad has 35 players?"
He added: "Egypt is not a small country, we are a big country, and I always used to tell the players that before the World Cup matches, such as the Argentina match. I told them not to think about who you are going to face, but to think that you are wearing the Egypt national team shirt."
Cost was another gripe. "When the foreign coach comes, he wants to stay in a hotel and it costs us at least 500,000 pounds a day, but once we had a home for football (referring to the Target project) we began to camp here, and we are happy because we have everything available to us."
Egypt now prepare to face Angola and South Sudan in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, plus a friendly against South Africa, during the international break that begins in a few days.
