The Egyptian Football Association have confirmed that Mohsen Saleh is to be the new coach of the national team.

Saleh will be the successor for Mahomoud El Gohary - now the coach for Jordan's national team - who led the Egyptian team in the African Cup of Nations finals in Mali last January.

Saleh will be leading the national team in what looks to be a relatively easy group in the qualifications round for the next Cup of Nations in Tunisia 2004.

Egypt's group includes Madagascar, Mauritius and Guinea Bissau.

However, it is still uncertain whether the EFA will give Saleh the chance to lead the National team in the next African Nations Cup finals or not.

Saleh coached many teams all over the Gulf, including the Saudi side Al Watan and Dubai's Ahly.

Locally, he started with Ahly, then Port Fouad, Masry and finally Ismaili.

In 1994, he worked as an assistant coach, and in 1995 he was officially selected to lead the national team, but stayed as coach for only one largely unsuccessful year.

His record includes many titles both as a player and a coach. As a player he helped Ahly to ten titles in the Egyptian League and the Cup.

Then as a coach with Ahly he won two major honours, a league title and a Cup title, and then in 1999 he won the Egyptian Cup with Ismaili.

This year he was finally able to win the League title with Ismaili, only the third time in their history.

This title was the main reason behind the EFA's choice to appoint him.

Meanwhile the African club of the century, Ahly, announced today that they signed a contract with the Dutch coach A. Haan, after sacking the Portuguese coach Manuel Jose who led the team to win the Caf Champion's League and the Caf Super Cup but failed to make any local impact losing both the National League and Cup.