Osorio exposes Zamalek players… Addiction to staying up late and hookah is destroying “Al-Abyad”

The Spanish newspaper Marca published a lengthy interview with Colombian coach Juan Carlos Osorio, during which he revealed many facts about the Egyptian club Zamalek.

Osorio told the newspaper that he achieved good results with “Al-Abyad” after the team jumped from ninth place in the league, achieved third place and qualified for the Confederation Cup.

Osorio spoke about the potential of Egyptian players, and said: “Genetically, there is great potential in Egypt, but for cultural reasons, the Egyptian football player is not exploited.”

He added: “The rhythms are very different from Europe or South America, as the player usually goes to rest at 10 p.m. or 11 p.m., and wakes up at approximately 7 or 8 a.m. to go to training, and the player trains after a rest of between seven and ten hours.”

On the other hand, he pointed out that the situation in Egypt is different, explaining: “This does not happen in Egypt because although the players never drink, they stay up very late, and often, due to a cultural problem, they stay up late whether to talk or browse social networking sites.” Socializing or smoking shisha, so they do not rest well for training, and that is why training here was a big challenge for me, because we did not get the full sporting benefit from our training.”