Zamalek Chairman Defends Soliman

Zamalek chairman Mortada Mansour has come out in defence of coach Momen Soliman following the club’s 3-1 aggregate defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League final.


Mansour, who refused to accept Soliman’s offer of resignation in the wake of the defeat, has backed the White Knights coach after he suffered criticism from a number of former players of the club.

“I admonish the Zamalek legends who criticised Momen Soliman after losing the final, to the degree that some such as Gamal Abdel Hamid described him as being less smart than the Sundowns coach,” Mansour told ON Sports satellite channel, as quoted by KingFut.

“Momen was 100 times better than the Sundowns coach. At this time it’s important to support the technical staff who suffered from squad shortage,” he added.

Zamalek’s efforts in the Champions League were hampered by their limited squad, with several players who were registered for the CAF competition leaving the club midway through the year.

“There are mistakes that were made when registering players in the African squad, like including Islam Gamal, Ibrahim Salah, and Ali Fathi. These decisions were taken by the previous technical staff headed by Mohamed Helmy,” Mansour added.