Former Bayer Leverkusen manager Heiko Herrlich explained why he turned down an offer to become Zamalek’s new head coach.
Herrlich was set to take charge of Zamalek after landing in Cairo during the week to complete his paperwork and sign the contract.
However, the 51-year-old decided to make a U-turn on his decision following Zamalek’s latest league defeat to rivals Al Masry.
Despite Zamalek going 2-0 up after just 20 minutes, Al Masry managed to turn the game on its head and win the tie late, thanks to Abdo Yehia’s 89th-minute winner.
The defeat extended Zamalek’s winless run in the Egyptian Premier League as they dropped to sixth place in the standings.
The Whites had also crashed out of the League Cup last month and failed to make it past the group stages in the CAF Champions League this season.
“I wanted to listen and watch everything on site, but there is too much unrest in and around this club, so I turned down the offer, which was really great,” Herrlich told BILD.
“I met the sporting director [Amir Mortada] at the hotel and we watched the Zamalek game together on Tuesday evening,”
“But after that, I didn’t hear anything from the club the entire day, so I thought that the whole thing doesn’t make sense if I don’t have a contact person.
“I would have really liked to have had this experience abroad, but I’m not the right person to solve the current problems at Zamalek,” he added.
