Egypt head coach Hossam El-Badry has revealed he hopes to end the ongoing reported strife between star player Mohamed Salah and the national team.
The Liverpool star was reportedly upset with the failure of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to send their votes to the Best Fifa Football Awards in the correct format.
Fifa explained on Wednesday, as follows, "During the monitoring of the votes submitted by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) on August 15, it was remarked that the signatures on the voting forms were in capital letters and thus seemed not valid (not authentic). The voting forms were also not signed by the general secretary which is mandatory."
Salah has since removed a reference to Egypt on his Twitter profile and posted a mysterious Tweet that read: "Whatever they do to try to change my love for Egypt, they will not succeed."
However, El-Badry is prepared to bring the nation’s biggest player onside for the duration of his tenure.
"There were some problems in the past and I followed the news as an Egyptian fan, and I have all the information about what happened," El-Badry said at Thursday's press conference.
"I will review the whole situation, not just because there were some problems, not just about Salah but also about the whole thing. I don't say there was a definite crisis but we need to investigate.
"About the voting problem [for the best] I was with the Egyptian federation and I will contact Salah to talk to him about that. Salah is the pride of Egypt and he always knows what to do."
Furthermore, the coach explained his decision to exclude Aston Villa right-back Ahmed Elmohamady from his squad.
“Having five foreign-based Pharaohs in the team doesn’t mean that Ahmed Elmohamady will not be called up to the squad in the future,” El-Badry stated.
“Elmohamady is a top player, but I’m looking to test new inexperienced players in that position at the moment and he [Elmohamady] doesn’t match that criteria,” he added.
In addition to speaking about the star players of the national team, El-Badry stated his intentions for the nation as he resumes his “dream job”.
“It’s been my dream to coach the national team since I started my coaching career in 1987,” said El-Badry.
“I always seek justice in my decisions. Therefore, we will have a fair selection of players as we will be watching all league games.”
“Our goal is to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations and then the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
“There are areas on the pitch where the team is deficient and we are working to find a solution to this problem,” he concluded.
