Carlos Queiroz: Egypt hire former Real Madrid and South Africa coach

Carlos Queiroz has been named as the new coach of the Egypt national team.

The former Real Madrid and Portugal manager was announced as the Pharaohs’ new handler on Wednesday afternoon by the Egyptian Football Association via their website.

The football ruling body had shown coach Hossam El Badry the exit door following the country’s 1-1 draw with Gabon in Sunday’s 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier staged inside Stade de Franceville.

The Portuguese tactician had also managed 1996 African champions, South Africa, from 2000 to 2002.

He guided Bafana Bafana to the 2002 World Cup finals before leaving the African nation. That decision prompted Safa to announce local coach Jomo Sono to lead the squad in South Korea and Japan.

He will be assisted by Diaa El-Sayed (general coach) as well as Mohamed Shawky.

Essam El-Hadary – who is the oldest player to feature in the Fifa World Cup – will serve as the goalkeeper trainer.

Aside from the trio, Queiroz will have the luxury of having a foreign assistant, a performance analyst and a rehabilitation specialist in his technical crew.

The 68-year-old was Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United before taking up the Real Madrid job as Vicente del Bosque’s replacement.

At the Santiago Bernabeu, he got off to an impressive start – leading Los Blancos to defeat Real Mallorca in the Supercopa de Espana. He was fired in May 2004.

Queiroz will make his debut when the seven-time African kings welcome hosts Libya in their next qualification outing in October.

As things stand, Egypt are second in Group F having accrued four points from the games played so far.

Since their debut at the 1934 World Cup in Italy – where they crashed out in the Round of 16 (the first round) – the Egyptians boast two more appearances.

Their last outing was at the 2018 edition staged in Russia. There, Hector Cuper’s team failed to get past the group stage following their inability to negotiate their way past hosts Russia, Saudia Arabia and Uruguay in Group A.