Dutch manager René Sloten has been dismissed from his position as head coach of the Egyptian national team, the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) announced on Monday, July 15, 2024. The decision comes just 35 days after his appointment and follows a disastrous start to the Pharaohs’ 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.
The EFA’s statement confirmed the termination of Sloten’s contract, citing the team’s “unsatisfactory results” as the primary reason. Sloten’s brief tenure was defined by two critical failures: a failure to secure the participation of star forward Mohamed Salah, and a failure to earn a single point in World Cup qualifying.
Sloten’s troubles began immediately. Upon his arrival, he faced the monumental task of convincing Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah to return to international duty. Salah had previously announced a temporary retirement from the national team following Egypt’s early exit from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. Despite multiple attempts at communication, Sloten was unable to persuade the captain to end his hiatus. This left Egypt without its most potent attacking threat and talismanic leader.
The on-field results that followed were catastrophic. In Sloten’s first competitive match, Egypt suffered a shocking 2-1 home defeat to Burkina Faso on June 6, 2024. The loss was a major blow, played out in front of a stunned Cairo crowd.
Worse was to come just four days later. Egypt traveled to Conakry to face Guinea on June 10, 2024, and were handed a humiliating 6-0 thrashing. The heavy defeat left Egypt rooted to the bottom of their World Cup qualifying group with zero points from two matches, a seemingly insurmountable deficit in the race for the 2026 finals.
The EFA’s board convened for an emergency meeting on Monday to review the team’s dire situation. The outcome was swift and decisive. “The board decided to end the contract of the national team’s technical staff, led by coach René Sloten, due to the unsatisfactory results,” the official statement read.
Sloten’s stubbornness, particularly in his handling of the Salah situation and his tactical approach, is seen as the direct cause of his downfall. His inability to integrate or motivate the squad in the absence of its superstar, coupled with the historic defeat in Guinea, made his position untenable. The EFA has now been forced into a rapid search for a new manager to salvage Egypt’s fading World Cup dreams.
