CAIRO - The Egyptian Olympic team, headed by coach Hani Ramzi, have already started their preparation camp. Egypt's U-23 team arrived Costa Rica last Friday for a preparation camp abroad, lasting till April 27. During the camp, they will play four international friendlies. The Young Pharaohs will face Costa Rica, Panama and then will travel to face Uruguay on April 25. Ramzi is delighted that the Y-Pharaohs are going to meet Costa Rica and Uruguay. "Despite the difficulties this country is facing and the cancellation of the Premier League, we are determined to continue with the training and the camps, either abroad or at home, so the players are fit and tactically prepared for London later this year,” he stressed. Two weeks ago, the Egyptian Olympic team defeated FC Basel of Switzerland 4-3 in a friendly game, courtesy of goals from Mohamed el-Nini, Mohamed Salah (two) and Marwan Mohssen. "The main aim of playing friendlies is to give the players more experience, in anticipation of the official games," he added. The Young Pharaohs have played many friendlies; they even defeated the Pharaohs' senior team 2-1 earlier this month. Prior to that, they had slumped to a 3-1 defeat against 2011 European champions Spain in a friendly on February 29 in Madrid. Ramzi said that he had hoped to face national team from the South American continent, as the Olympic team haven't play any of its national teams, who have their own unique footballing style. "We have played with national teams from Asia, Africa and Europe, but not from the South African continent," he explained. The Uruguay team has already qualified for the Olympic Games this summer. "Facing them is a good chance for the lads to gain more experience of the Latin American school of football," Ramzi continued, explaining that the Olympic team are going to hold a final preparation camp in Germany from July 12 to 22, after participating in the Arab Football Cup. He recently announced that two key senior national team players, Al-Ahly right-winger Ahmed Fathi and Zamalek playmaker Mahmoud Abdel-Razeq 'Shikaballah' (Shika) will join the Olympic national team squad for the Toulon friendly international tournament to be held in France from May 22 to June 3. "Shikaballah and Fathi will also take part in the preparation camp ahead of the Toulon championship, to give the duo time to adjust to the rest of the squad," sources at the Olympic team said. The Toulon international tournament will witness the participation of the Olympics teams of the Netherlands, Japan, Belarus, Mexico, Morocco and France, besides Egypt. The Egyptian team are in Group A with Japan, Mexico and France. Ramzi has announced the squad for the Costa Rica friendly camping, as follows: Ahmed el-Shenawi, Mohamed Bassem, Mahmoud Shoukri, Bassem Ali, Saad Eddin Samir, Ahmed Hegazi, Mahmoud Alaa, Islam Ramadan, Ali Fathi, Islam Gamal, Amr el-Soliaa, Hossam Hassan, Mohamed el-Nini, Islam Kamal, Ahmed Magdi, Ahmed Hamoudi, Ahmed Shoukri, Mohamed Salah, Hisham Mohamed, Marwan Mohssen, Ahmed Shoreida, Moustafa Mehana, Ali Lofti, Saleh Gomaa, Mohamed Sobhi, Shehab Eddin Ahmed, Omar Gaber.
