Bob Bradley, Coach of Egyptian National Soccer Team, Featured in Princetonian Articles

Classmate Bob Bradley finds himself in the center of world-historic happenings these days because of his passion for soccer. Formerly the head of the U.S. soccer team, Bradley was named the head of Egypt's men's soccer team in September 2011. In February of this year, a riot at an Egyptian soccer match left scores dead. Bob's decision to take part in a memorial march led to wide press attention, including a dramatic feature article and a Q&A interview in the Daily Princetonian. In the interview, asked about the factors that led him to the march, Bob said,

The morning after the tragedy, when I spoke to Zak Abdel, Zak is a friend of mine, he was with the U.S. team the last five or six years as goalkeeper coach. The morning after me, Zak and the assistant coach El Sahed spoke about what happened. I asked them for different opinions. When Zak and I talked more about it, we went back where I live, and my wife was there. At that point, he had gotten word from somebody that there was going to be a rally in Sphinx Square. We all agreed at that time that it was important to show respect to those who lost their lives and show respect to their families, and that it was important to be with the people at that moment. I’ve said it many times: The people in Egypt are very warm, they’re very proud. They’re proud of their culture, they’re proud of their history, and of course they’re very, very proud of their football. I say football only because here that’s what they call it. They’re very proud of their football, and they’re passionate, and in a country where there’s so much passion for football, it’s incredibly sad that a group of young people would lose their lives at a football match. We all felt it was important to be in Sphinx Square with the people and make sure that in a simple way we were showing our respect.