Mohamed Abdel Wahed, the assistant coach of the Egyptian national team, revealed the reason for excluding Mustafa Mohamed, the professional playing for French Nantes, from the Pharaohs' squad in the World Cup, and including Hamza Abdel Karim, Barcelona's striker, and Mustafa Zico, Pyramids player.
Abdel Wahed said during statements to "Al-Shams" channel: "Since we assumed responsibility, there has been no agreement on the selections in the Egyptian national team squad, due to differing opinions among 120 million Egyptians".
He added: "The technical staff selects purely on technical grounds, but no player is excluded for any personal reason or anything specific against him".
He continued: "Mustafa Mohamed is a big player with no dispute about him; he was at the top of the Egyptian national team squad in recent periods, but lately he has not been in his best form".
He added: "Mustafa Zico, for example, scored 14 goals with Pyramids while not playing as a starter in his team; that indicates he is a player who possesses a lot, and Hossam Hassan has spoken about him a lot in recent periods. The player lived up to the responsibility; this is credited to the technical staff after the brilliance at the World Cup".
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He went on: "Including Hamza Abdel Karim, he is a professional player at Barcelona, 'one of the best teams in the world', a promising player who has added to us; he will be Egypt's main striker for years to come, he has all the qualities of a striker".
The Egyptian national team had achieved a historic accomplishment at the 2026 World Cup by qualifying for the round of 16 for the first time in the World Cup and lost to Argentina 3-2.
