Hossam Hassan makes the squad

The Egyptian squad for the African Nations Cup on homesoil in January-February was announced today. Among the 23-member squad was the icon of Egyptian fotball, Hossam Hassan. Arguably the best player in Egypt the last 15 years. Hossam, 39 years old, and once the most capped international player in the world(perhaps again soon). I myself doubt the wisdom of coach Shahata in including Hossam in the Squad. He´s known for his hottempered personality, and eventough he possess great qualities on the pitch and could and should be used as a supersub in the last 30 minutes of the game. I´m not quite convinced that he will conform to the will of the coach, but i´m hoping to be wrong in my presumption. I remember him playing in the world cup opening match against the then European champions Holland with the fantastic trio of Reikard, Gullit and Van Basten and he was the best on the pitch. I also remember him scoring 3 goals for Xamax Neuchatel against Real Madrid, some years later, the club who at that time had an Egyptian trio of Hossam his twin brother Ibrahim and Hany Ramzy. Hossam made his debut in the African nations cup in Cairo 1986, and hopefully he will end his career, as a international player by winning the gold with the Pharaos in Madinat Nasr in a few weeks time.

In the squad there is 10 players from the African champions al Ahli and five from their local rivals al Zamalek. It will be interesting to see what people like Muhammad Barakat and Abou Treka can do, as well as Ibrahim Said. And if mido scores regularly as he does for Tottenham in the Premiership, then it could be an interesting tournament for the Pharaos.