Robert Bradley US football coach-Egypt - The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) is close to signing on former US coach Robert Bradley to lead the Pharaohs senior team, following a search for a successor to Hassan Shehata who has moved on to Cairo Culb, Zamalek. Shehata, who led Egypt to winning the last three African Cup of Nations trophies, stepped down following his failure to guide Egypt to the CAN 2012 finals in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea .

EFA is also closing in on appointing Diaa Al-Sayed as assistant coach of the senior team, after Al-Sayed impressively guided the Under-20 team at the FIFA World Cup in Colombia to the second round.

Zaki Abdel-Fatah, who is an Egyptian-American is tipped to be goalkeeper coach in the new Egyptian management team, to be unveiled most likely next week.

Abdel-Fatah would round up the proposed Egyptian-American connection, having spent most of his career in the Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US.

Bradley's agent has confirmed that the latter is a candidate for the position of head coach of the Egypt.

The 53-year old Bradley left his post in the US last month after leading the side to 43 wins, 25 losses and 12 draws in just over four years.

Bradley’s achievements as the US coach include leading the team to the 2009 Confederations Cup final, after defeating their Egyptian counterparts 3-0 in the group stage, and also to the final 16 at last year's World Cup in South Africa, where the Americans only bowed out to the Black Stars of Ghana.

Bradley comes from a family of athletes.

His brother, Scott, played Baseball, and a current coach, his other brother, Jeff, is a sports writer, while his son Michael, is an international  US footballer.

Egypt should have an easy time in the early stages of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, having been drawn with Zimbabew, Guinea and the winner of the Mozambique-Comoros encounter in round robin play. 

Brazil will host the 2014 World Cup finals.

Pana 17/08/2011