Bonface Osano
Egypt Football Association (EFA) has appointed ex-Atletico Madrid manager Javier Aguirre as the new coach of the Pharaohs on a four-year-deal.
The 59-year-old will assume the hot seat left vacant after EFA declined to renew Hector Cuper’s stay after a dismal World Cup outing in Russia.
The former Mexico international and coach will be unveiled officially on Thursday by the EFA president Hani Abo Rida.
Cuper qualified the Pharaohs to the 2018 World Cup in Russia after close to three decades but they failed to go past the group stage.
He finished runners-up in the 2017 AFCON in Gabon, losing to Cameroon in the final.
But despite the successes, Cuper’s style, which was deemed overly defensive and boring, often earned him a lot of stick from fans, who were used to free scoring Egypt.
Javier is new to the continent but has been a national team coach before having handled Mexico and Japan previously.
At club level, he has handled several including Atletico Madrid, Espanyol, Osasuna, Zaragoza and Pachua.
His immediate task will be to prepare the team for the resumption of the 2019 AFCON qualifiers.
Egypt lost their first qualifier 1-0 to regional rivals Tunisia and will take on Niger in their next outing in September.
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