FORMER Egypt and current Zamalek coach Hassan Shehata is still very sad about Egypt’s inability to make the 2012 Afcon.

The 63-year-old coach confided in SuperSport.com that Afcon was special and unlike any other tournament in the world and the fact that Egypt used mainly home based players remains the key to her success till 2012. He said that teams that depend just on their foreign players would always stumble.

Nevertheless, Hassan still named Ghana and Ivory Coast to be the favourites considering that the other big guns like Cameroon and Nigeria were missing. However he said one should not be shocked to see one of new comers go far into the competition.

Shehata led Egypt to three successive African Cup of Nations titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010 to become the first African nation to achieve this record.

In addition to this, he is also the longest-serving coach in the Egyptian national team history.

Egypt failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, finishing bottom of its qualifying group. Shehata resigned in June.

Agencies