Tottenham striker Ahmed Hossam “Mido” gave up his number nine shirt to veteran ace Hossam Hassan in the Egyptian national team. Mido, who took over the number nine shirt ever since Hassan stepped down from the international arena, will wear the number 15 shirt, which he wears with his Premiership side. Hassan will also retain his place as skipper of the Egyptian team, to honor him for his experience. Egypt's complete squad list in numbers: 1-Essam El-Hadari 2-Ahmed Al-Sayed 3-Mohamed Abdul-Wahab 4-Ibrahim Saied 5-Abdul-Zaher Al-Saqqa 6-Hassan Mostafa 7-Ahmed Fathi 8-Hosni Abd-Rabbou 9-Hossam Hassan 10-Emad Meteb 11-Mohamed Shawki 12-Mohamed Barakat 13-Tarek Al-Sayed 14-Abdul-Halim Ali 15-Mido 16-Abdul-Wahed Al-Sayed
Belal opens fire on Shehata 17-Ahmed Hassan 18-Osama Hosni 19-Amr Zaki 20-Wael Gomaa 21-Ahmed Eid Abdul-Malek 22-Mohamed Abou-Treika 23-Mohamed Abdul-Monsef Egypt coach Hassan Shehata adopted a strict conduct policy for the national team players in the closed training camp ahead of the international friendly against South Africa on Saturday. Shehata's policies included residing players in single rooms, banning mobile phones and interviews with the media to help them concentrate. The South Africa friendly is the final rehearsal for the national team ahead of the African Cup of Nations that will kick-off on January 20th. Meanwhile, Konyaspor striker Ahmed Belal opened fire on Shehata for excluding him from the Egyptian squad for the African Cup. Belal openly accused Shehata of playing favorites in his squad for the African tournament. “I'm astonished by the decision to exclude me, especially that Shehata was full of praise for me in the past period,” Belal told Filgoal.com. The former Ahli forward said he was surprised to see some “injured” players make the final cut while he was omitted despite being completely fit. Despite not singling out players, only skipper Hassan fits Belal's reference. “We will face a big problem in the ACN because the coach only called up four Europe-based players,” said Belal. “I ask you: How do you go into a strong tournament like the African Cup with only four Europe-based players?” he said. “Some African sides didn't even name a single local player in their squad.” Nevertheless, Belal said he was not affected by the omission, even though he would have loved to represent Egypt, and does not regret the time he spent with the national team. “I learnt a lot from my time in Turkey, and I was hoping to put it into good use with the Egyptian team, but it didn't happen,” said Belal.
