Former Egyptian national team captain Ahmed Hassan has shared his thoughts on the most disappointing and most successful national team managers.
In a recent interview, Ahmed Hassan was asked to name the coach he believed had the worst tenure leading the national team. Without hesitation, he pointed to former managers Bob Bradley and Italian coach Marco Tardelli.
“Bob Bradley and Marco Tardelli had the most disappointing tenures with the national team,” Hassan said.
When asked to elaborate on their shortcomings and weak points, Ahmed Hassan criticized Tardelli’s approach, saying, “Tardelli seemed to not take the job seriously or understand the scope of things during his time in charge.”
Regarding Bradley, who managed Egypt between 2011 and 2013, Hassan was particularly critical of the American manager’s squad selections. “Bradley’s player selections seemed to be mostly random. I think he called up more than 70 different players during his two-year stint. With all due respect to the players, when it comes to the national team, experience on the field matters, and it was absent at the time.”
Ahmed Hassan was also asked to weigh in on Egypt’s greatest national team manager between Hassan Shehata and the late Mahmoud El Gohary. While he acknowledged Shehata’s remarkable success, the former skipper reserved special praise for El Gohary.
“If we’re talking about numbers, it’s undoubtedly Hassan Shehata. He was very successful in that sense,” Hassan said. “But Mahmoud El Gohary was special. As a manager, he was ahead of his time. I owe a lot of what I learned on the field to El Gohary.”
Despite his close professional and personal relationship with Shehata, Hassan ultimately chose El Gohary as Egypt’s greatest coach. “Even though I have a strong bond with Hassan Shehata, I would have to say Mahmoud El Gohary was the best manager to take charge of the Egyptian national team.”