Cuper praises Salah

CAIRO – 6 January 2018: Egypt national team manager Hector Cuper showed his admiration on Saturday for Liverpool’s Egyptian winger, Mohamed Salah.

“He’s an enormously talented, yet very modest, player. He scored the majority of the goals, but worked and ran just like everyone else. For him, it’s always been about the group, and he gets no special privileges. That might seem like a small detail, but it’s a very significant one,” Cuper told FIFA’s official website.

Salah scored five goals in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers to lead the Egyptian national team to the World Cup. Salah and his teammates ended 28 years of absence, as Egypt last played in the World Cup in 1990 in Italy.

Salah won the 2017 CAF African Player of the Year award on Thursday, January 4, becoming the second Egyptian player to win the award, after Mahmoud El Khatib achieved it in 1983.

Cuper spoke about Egypt’s participation in the World Cup, saying, “We are going to face some very strong teams, and I’m sure we’ll perform well. We have a large squad and we’re working on minimizing our shortcomings.”

The World Cup draw put Egypt in group A alongside Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and the host nation, Russia.