Aston Villa's right-winger Ahmed Elmohamady will wear the captain's armband for Egypt when they host Niger in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers on Saturday, coach Javier Aguiree said. Recent local reports suggested that Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah could succeed 45-year-old goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, who retired from international football last month, as Egypt's skipper. However, the team eventually kept faith with its tradition to give the armband to the first player in the squad to have represented Egypt. "Elmohamady is the first captain, followed by Mohamed Elneny, Ahmed Hegazi and Mohamed Salah," Mexican coach Aguirre told a news conference on Friday. "This order is based on the factors of age and experience," he added. Elmohamady, 30, earned his first international cap in a friendly game against Ivory Coast in August 2007 and went on to make 82 appearances, scoring twice. He was part of Egypt's 2010 Nations Cup winning squad. Egypt host Niger in Alexandria on Saturday in their second Nations Cup qualifier as they seek to make up for an opening 1-0 loss at Tunisia. They are overwhelming favourites to beat their unfancied opponents and give Aguirre a winning start after he replaced Argentinean coach Hector Cuper following Egypt's embarrassing World Cup campaign. "I'm very optimistic over the game against Niger. I don't want to be drawn into discussions about the World Cup; we want to make a new history," former Mexico boss Aguirre said. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
