Suddenly, the Egyptian Football Association announced the appointment of Portuguese Carlos Queiroz to lead the Egypt national team in the upcoming period, with his arrival in Cairo scheduled for the end of next week. Queiroz was not on the list of candidates discussed in local media over the past few days, which included several Egyptian names such as Hassan Shehata, Hossam Hassan, and Ihab Darwich. Therefore, the decision to appoint Queiroz came as a surprise to everyone, but having a foreign coach at the helm of Egypt's technical staff revived what some referred to as the "foreign coach complex."
The "foreign coach complex" is one of the most famous terms circulating in Egyptian society, used to express a person's preference for a foreign product over its local counterpart.
**The Project or the Coach?**
In this regard, sports critic Mohamed Talba states that changing coaches "does not guarantee success for the national team; as it concerns the entire system, not just the technical staff." He adds to Sky News Arabia: "Looking at successful global experiences at the national team level, you’ll find that the first step to success is relying on a single football philosophy and a consistent playing style across different age groups of the national team. It's enough to emulate the experience of Egypt's handball team, which relied on the Spanish method in recent years, resulting in it now being one of the strongest teams in the world in the sport."
He continues: "Whether Queiroz succeeds or fails with the Pharaohs, there must be a solid plan to elevate Egyptian football to a better level, and this is the role of the Egyptian Football Association's technical director Nilo Vingada, who was appointed to his position last April, but his fingerprints have not appeared yet."
**Teams and National Teams**
Observers believe the phenomenon is not limited to the Egyptian national team alone, but also applies to the major teams in the Egyptian Premier League, Al Ahly and Zamalek, which constantly seek foreign coaches and players. However, in the end, they remain two of the strongest teams in "the black continent," which indicates that this approach is successful. But will this same method lead the Pharaohs back to championship titles?
Sports critic Othman Salem states that "the comparison between the reliance of Egyptian teams and national teams on foreign coaches is invalid, as the training circumstances differ between them. Additionally, a team coach has the opportunity to enhance his squad with strong foreign players, while the national team coach relies solely on the available players."
Salem adds to Sky News Arabia: "This generation of Pharaohs boasts a large number of stars, led by Mohamed Salah, but so far no coach has managed to create a successful playing system that can harness the best technical levels from Egyptian national team players."
He continues: "The greatest achievements of the national team in recent years were accomplished by Egyptians (Mahmoud El-Gohary and Hassan Shehata), so there is no need for a 'foreign coach complex' at the level of the Pharaohs."
He further notes: "The primary reason for the existence of the 'foreign coach complex' among Egyptian football fans is the two polar teams, Al Ahly and Zamalek, as their greatest successes came under foreign coaches, especially during the last decade. Thus, there is a constant conviction that having a foreign coach means achieving successes."
The sports critic affirms that currently "there are no Egyptian figures capable of leading the Pharaohs to championship titles, so the choice of a foreign coach is the optimal solution to overcome this crisis, especially with less than a month left until the next international break."
**Dealing with Players**
There is a recurring statement in Egyptian sports programs that foreign coaches can interact with players better than their local counterparts. Therefore, Sky News Arabia contacted former international player and one of the historical leaders of Al Ahly, Captain Shadi Mohamed, who was part of the golden generation of the red club and the Egyptian national team under the coaches Manuel Jose and Shehata.
Mohamed tells Sky News Arabia: "The truth is, it depends on the coach's personality, whether Egyptian or foreign, as well as the presence of a successful system in which everyone knows their role and adheres to it."
He adds: "One of the biggest crises facing the Egyptian national team today is that the coach does not have his full powers. This results in some inappropriate scenes of player misbehavior towards their coach."
Shadi also clarifies that Egyptian coaches "need to develop themselves, as the inability of a single Egyptian coach to lead his national team indicates a complete failure of this system," in his view.
The former player concludes his remarks to Sky News Arabia by saying: "The recent decisions by the Football Association do not bode well for achievements in Egyptian football, and we hope the coming period will pass with the least number of possible losses."
