Egypt’s Olympic football team will play friendlies against Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay during a tour of Central and South America between 12 and 25 April in preparation for the London Olympics which begin in July.
�We need to compete with teams from Latin America to have a closer look at their footballing styles, especially because we might face some of them at the Olympics,� coach Hany Ramzy said.
Ramzy said his staff had worked hard to arrange friendlies with high-standard opposition and insisted the matches would be tough.
Ahmed El-Shennawey, Ahmed Hegazy, Mohamed Salah, Mohamed El-Nenny and Bassem Ali, have been welcomed back into Ramzy�s squad after attending a training camp with the seniors under American coach Bob Bradley.
The Pharaohs will fly to Costa Rica to play Panama on 15 April and Costa Rica two days later. They head to Mexico for a match on 20 April before ending their brief tour in Uruguay on 25 April.
Egypt qualified for this year’s Olympics after a 20-year absence. Their last appearance was 1992 in Barcelona, where they lost to Spain and Qatar, beat Colombia, and failed to progress beyond the group stage.
