Head national team football coach Hector Cuper has called up 11 players abroad for a training camp scheduled to be held in the last week of March in Egypt. The Pharaohs are building up for the opening of their qualifying campaign for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Egypt is to take on Tunisia in its opening match of the first phase of the qualifications in June. According to team manager Ihab Leheta, the Argentinian Cuper has called up the following players: Ahmed Al-Mohammadi (Hull City), Mohamed Abdel-Shafi (Ahli Jeddah), Mohamed Al-Nenni (Arsenal), Mohamed Salah (Roma), Kahraba (Ittihad Jeddah), Mahmoud Hassan, Trezeguez (Muscern, Belgium), Karim Hafez (Lens), Ramadan Sobhi (Stoke City), Amr Warda (Pauk) and Sam Morsi (Wegan). Absent is Ahmed Hassan Kouka of Belgium and Omar Gaber of Basle because of injury, while the list sees a new face, Sam Morsi of Wigan who will be making his first appearance with the Pharaohs after the player received his Egyptian passport. During the one-week training camp in Alexandria during the national league break, the Pharaohs will play a friendly international against Togo at Borg El-Arab Stadium. According to EFA media director Osama Ismail, Togo was selected because the head coach wanted to play against a new team, different from the other African teams they have played against in friendly matches, the African championship and the World Cup qualifiers. “Egypt has played against Ghana, Uganda, Congo, Mali, Morocco, Burkina Faso and Cameroon in the past few months. The team needs to play against a different school of football,” Ismail said.
