Mohamed Salah was careful not to sound too lordly. “I have told this generation before, I am so proud to play alongside you,” he said of his Egypt teammates. “In fact, it’s what I always tell them. I have seen how much they endure.”
At the same time, Salah had an important point to make, looking ahead to Wednesday's semi-final of the Africa Cup of Nations in Tangier. Yes, the squad with whom he has now reached his third semi-final in six attempts to win the Afcon, were exceptional for what he calls their “battling” qualities, for “their heart and soul.”
But they were exceptional, too, in the broader context of the toughest phase of Africa’s most prestigious tournament because, in the vast majority, they play their club football in North Africa and the Middle East.
Salah stressed that to do so does not make a footballer a lesser player, but that Egypt bring a distinct body of collected experience to the last four-stage of an Afcon where t
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