Wrote:
Mohamed Yousry Morshed
Friday 19 August 2022
11:43 p.m
Egypt’s Olympic team opens its dream of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics after two months, by entering the qualifiers for the 2023 African Nations Cup under 23 years, to be held in Morocco.
According to the draw held yesterday, Thursday, Egypt will face in the second round the winner of the Eswatini and Botswana match, which will be held in the first round.
The Egyptian national team will play the first leg of the second round of the qualifiers outside its homeland during the period from 21 to 23 October, and will play the return match in Cairo from 28 to 30 of the same month.
In the event that Egypt qualifies for the third and final round of the qualifiers, it will play against the qualifiers from the confrontations of Sierra Leone and Zambia, next March.
Despite the delay in appointing the technical staff of the Olympic team, which was appointed on the seventh of August, led by the Brazilian Rogerio Micale, the conditions seem ideal to choose a good list of the Pharaohs.
Circumstances played in favor of Egypt’s Olympic team due to Al-Ahly and Zamalek’s reliance on a group of people born in 2001 (the maximum age that can be included), in addition to other younger players, in addition to the youth team participating in the Arab Cup and providing talents that can help this age.
Happy news came from Germany as well, with the participation of Omar Abdel Meguid, the young Hamburg playmaker and Egyptian national team player, born in 2003, with the first team that plays in the German second division.
Omar Abdel Meguid is not the only professional strongly nominated to support the Olympic team, but next to him is Mohamed Maghribi, Al-Ahly defender, loaned to the Tbilisi club, Bilal Mazhar, a professional in Greek Panathinaikos, and the youth team duo Salah Pasha and goalkeeper Ahmed Nader Al-Sayed to save the complete absence of the participation of young guards in the Egyptian league of this age or less. Older and after the closest to being present, Hamza Alaa, Al Ahly’s goalkeeper, who participated with the team in the League Cup.
In contrast to the professionals, there comes a large group that participates locally regularly or who have recently had the opportunity and have appeared well, headed by Ibrahim Adel, the star of Pyramids and one of the most important talents in the league, and Mustafa Adel Messi, the star of Ceramica Cleopatra, and the two candidates to move to Al-Ahly.
Hossam Abdel Majid, the defender of Zamalek, was one of those who got the opportunity and became a key player in the ranks of Zamalek, as well as Mohamed Ashraf, the left back of Al-Ahly, and he is a duo that is strongly nominated to play a key role in the defense line.
Another talent in the middle of the field stands out as Mahmoud Saber of Pyramids, Seif Al-Agouz, the main midfielder of El-Gouna, Osama El-Gazzar, the right-back of Al-Masry, with Ahmed Sherif, striker for Farco, with his colleagues Osama Faisal, striker of Al-Ahly Bank, and Emad Mihoub, striker of Eastern Company, loaned from Pyramids.
Also comes a local group from the youth team, led by Abdel Rahman Rashdan, defender of the Tigris Valley, and Raafat Khalil, who was recently promoted to the first team of Al-Ahly with Ahmed Nader Hawash Joker Enppi.
The list of 23 available to Mikaly consists of:
Ahmed Nader Al-Sayed (Vizila Portuguese) – Hamza Alaa (Al-Ahly)
Osama Al-Jazzar (Egypt) – Mohamed Maghribi (Czech Teplice) – Hossam Abdel-Majid (Zamalek) – Abdel-Rahman Rashdan (Wadi Degla) – Mohamed Ashraf (Al-Ahly) – Karim Al-Debes (Wadi Degla).
Ahmed Nabil Kouka (Al-Ahly) – Seif Al-Agouz (El Gouna) – Mahmoud Saber (Pyramids) – El-Araby Badr (Future)
Raafat Khalil (Al-Ahly) – Abdel-Ghani Mohamed (Al-Ittihad) – Omar Abdel-Meguid (Hamburg) – Mostafa Messi (Ceramic Kilopat) – Ahmed Nader Hawash (ENPI) – Ibrahim Adel (Pyramids) – Bilal Mazhar (Greek Panathinaikos)
Ahmed Sherif (Farco) – Salah Pasha (Udinese) – Osama Faisal (National Bank) – Imad Mihoub (Pyramids)
The finals of the 2023 African Nations Under-23 Cup will be held in Morocco, in June next year, knowing that the tournament qualifies for the 2024 Paris Olympics.