Egypt national team player Haitham Hassan revealed the reasons for choosing to represent the Pharaohs rather than the Tunisia or France national teams.
Haitham Hassan
Club: Real Oviedo
Haitham Hassan said via MBC Egypt: "I chose to play for the Egypt national team because it is Egypt and it is the strongest African team, of course it is an honor for me to represent Tunisia or France, but the quality of players that the Egypt national team has makes you unable to refuse playing in the Pharaohs' jersey and everyone knows who the Egypt national team is and its value and my father loves football and adores Egypt".
He added, "My father is from Aswan and my mother is from Tunisia, and now, thank God, I play for the Egypt national team and I hope this will be a successful start for the coming years and it is an honor for me to wear Egypt's jersey".
He pointed out, "Mohamed Salah, before being a great player, is a great leader and a wonderful person, and he is very keen on everyone in the Egypt national team, and since he started playing football he has played in many places and has a sense of responsibility and has the qualities of a leader and he is one of the greatest Egyptian players and when we were young we used to watch Salah and wish to become like him and that is important to me, I see him now every day and try to learn from him to be better".
He explained, "Salah on the bus greeted us and talked to us, he is a great leader and thinks of everyone and when I was finishing my papers to participate he talked to me and boosted my morale and supported me a lot".
He confirmed, "It is an honor for me to play alongside Mohamed Salah as he is one of the greatest players in the world and I hope to be able to represent Egypt like him in the coming years and lead the national team to victories".
He explained, "I cannot be like Salah, because Salah is one player, but I want to be Haitham Hassan, I want to be inspired by him and benefit from his experiences and learn from him as he is my role model and he proves to us that hard work can take us far as he has continuity and fighting spirit and his career is wonderful".
He recounted, "Argentina play violently and if you pass them they hit you and I was hit a lot in front of them, and this qualifying match for the quarter-finals they will do anything to qualify, but I was able to play well and dribble past them".
He continued, "My feeling was wonderful with Egypt's goals against Argentina and they were moments full of happiness and we were very close to winning the match, but in the end it ended with Argentina's victory unfortunately".
He went on, "We felt sad after the match because we were dreaming of qualifying and we were talking about facing Switzerland after the match against Argentina, but after we took a two-goal lead we lost the match in a way that makes you feel great regret and intense anger at what the referee did, but I was very happy and proud of this team and representing my country and the Egypt national team".
He continued, "If we did not win against Argentina, we won the respect of everyone in Egypt and we saw what happened in the fans' area and the audience in all cities and people are happy with what we achieved, which is a wonderful thing and an exceptional feeling, because Egypt is a big country and deserves to be among the world champions".
He disclosed, "My father is a Zamalek fan, I received many offers last summer but I prefer not to rush and I talked to my agent and he told me that the time is not right to leave and that we should postpone this matter until after the World Cup".
Regarding his future, he said at the end of his statements, "I do not want to rush my decision, I want to get a period of rest and spend time with my family whom I have not seen for a long time and then decide my future".
