An unpleasant memory for Egypt with Spain... and a difficult task in "Tokyo 2020" without Mohamed Salah

The Egyptian Olympic football team begins its campaign in Group B in the Tokyo Olympics by meeting its Spanish counterpart on the 22nd of this month in search of an unprecedented achievement in the records of the descendants of the Pharaohs, after obtaining fourth place twice before in the 1928 Paris Olympics and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The Egyptian team is participating in the Olympics for the 12th time in its history, having qualified 11 times before, the first in the 1920 edition and the last in London 2012. But the Spain match bears an unpleasant memory for the Egyptian Olympic, in addition to the absence of Liverpool star Mohamed Salah will make the task of the Egyptian team very difficult in Group B Against two experienced teams such as Spain and Argentina, as well as the highly developed Australia team.

The descendants of the Pharaohs qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after winning the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations that was held in Egypt in 2019 after beating Côte d'Ivoire in the final with two goals against a goal in a marathon match, to qualify together from the brown continent to Tokyo.

The Egyptian team will meet Spain on July 22, then Argentina on July 25, then Australia on July 28 the same, and the Pharaohs will return to participate in the Olympics after an absence of nine years, as their last appearance was in the London edition in 2012 before they came out of the quarter-finals by losing to Japan by three clean.

The Egyptian team played 32 games before in the Olympics, winning 10 times, drawing 4 times and losing 18 times, scoring 65 goals and 87 goals.

The descendants of the Pharaohs are led by coach Shawky Gharib, who has great achievements in Egyptian football, who was born on February 26, 1959 in the great city of El-Mahalla and starred in the midfield position in the Ghazl El-Mahalla team in the Egyptian League. Egyptian.

Mohamed Youssef, the former coach of Al-Ahly team and captain of the Egyptian Olympic team in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, said that the draw was not merciful to the Pharaohs in Tokyo 2020. He continued, in exclusive statements to the German News Agency (dpa), that "the draw put us in front of two teams nominated for the gold medal. They are Spain and Argentina, and the development of football in Australia should not be overlooked either."

He explained: "I was a captain of the Egyptian Olympic team in Barcelona in 1992 and we played against Spain and lost by two goals on the way to winning the gold medal.. And now the situation is repeated and it is very difficult given Spain's great talents, and it is enough that the Matador will depend on six players who participated with the first team at Euro 2020.

He continued: "I think that our situation is very difficult, but the ambitions of our players should not stop at our players, and Shawky Gharib as a technical manager is able, with his deep and long experience, to deal with these situations."

After his retirement from football, Shawky Gharib went to coaching, where he has a bright record and may be among the five best coaches in the history of Egyptian football. He achieved bronze in the World Junior Championships with the Egyptian national team in 2001 in Argentina and was a general coach in Hassan Shehata's coach, the coach of the first Egyptian team, who He won three consecutive titles in the African Nations Cup in 2006, 2008 and 2010, in addition to leading the Egyptian Olympic team to crown the U-23 African Nations Championship, which was held in Cairo in 2019. Shawky Gharib dreams of repeating the achievement of the world championship in Argentina and achieving a medal for Egypt in the Olympics.

Gharib relies on a distinguished group of players, most notably Ramadan Sobhi, the Pyramids winger, who went through two professional experiences in Stoke City and Huddersfield in England, as well as Akram Tawfiq, Taher Mohamed Taher, Salah Mohsen, Nasser Maher, Ahmed Ramadan Beckham, Al-Ahly players, Imam Ashour, Zamalek player, and Ammar Hamdi, Al-Ittihad player of Alexandria on loan from Al-Ahly, along with The over-aged trio, Mohamed El-Shennawy, Al-Ahly goalkeeper, Mahmoud Al-Wansh, player of Zamalek, and Ahmed Hegazy, defender of the Saudi Jeddah Federation.

The Egyptian Olympic team lost the efforts of Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool wing, who Shawky Gharib tried to include, but his club refused, as well as Mustafa Mohamed, the Galatasaray player, whose Turkish club refused to abandon him, and Omar Marmoush, who also refused his German club, Wolfsorg, to abandon him.

The full list of the Pharaohs in Tokyo includes Muhammad Al-Shennawi, Muhammad Sobhi and Mahmoud Gad in guarding the goal, along with Ahmed Aboul Fotouh, Karim Fouad, Ahmed Hegazy, Mahmoud Al-Wansh, Muhammad Abdul Salam, Ahmed Ramadan “Beckham”, Osama Jalal, Karim Al-Iraqi, Akram Tawfiq, Ammar Hamdi, Imam Ashour, Nasser Maher, Ramadan Sobhi and Ibrahim Adel, Abdel Rahman Magdy, Taher Mohamed Taher, Ahmed Yasser Rayan, Salah Mohsen and Nasser Mansi.

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