Mohamed Zidan

Not to be confused with Zinedine Zidane.

Mohamed Zidan

Personal information
Full name	Zinedine Zidane
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Hamburger SV
Number	7
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of January 22, 2008

Mohamed Abdulla Zidan (Arabic: محمد عبدالله زيدان) (born December 11, 1981 in Port Said) is an Egyptian footballer who is a striker for German club Hamburger SV and the Egyptian national team.

Biography

Early career

Initially Zidan's footballing career started as a striker for his hometown club Al-Masry in 1998. His family moved to Denmark when he was dropped from the Al-Masry club due to his lack of passing skills. In his first year in Denmark, while training with B93 for a contact, he played a few games for the Danish-Turkish club FC Anatolien in Nivå in the Northen Seeland of Denmark. Zidan was scouted by the Danish Superliga side Akademisk Boldklub (AB) while he was juggling a ball at a Danish park in 1999. In June 2003, he moved to the league rivals FC Midtjylland (FCM), as AB experienced financial hardship. At FCM, he became the league's top scorer in the 2003-04 season, and he was awarded the Rookie of the year award, becoming Player of the Year the following season. In all, he scored 30 goals in 47 appearances for FC Midtjylland, and especially his three goals in the first three games of FCM's newly built SAS Arena stadium, made the stadium colloquially known as "Zidan Arena".

From Denmark to Germany

His performance in the Danish League had resulted in several top European clubs gaining interest in signing the striker. In the winter break of the 2004-05 season he was bought by German club SV Werder Bremen for a fee of 3 million Euros. Initially, the striker made quite an impression with the general public, having scored 10 goals in 3 friendly games for Bremen. Even though he scored an official goal in his first two appearances, he was loaned out to FSV Mainz 05 for the remainder of the 2005-06 season. He went on to score 9 goals in 26 appearances, 7 as a substitute. In the 2006-07 pre-season friendly matches, he retained his form with Werder Bremen, starting 6 of the 7 matches he has played and scoring 4 goals. Zidan's performance in the semi-final match of the German League Cup against Hamburger SV, on August 1, 2006, including bagging a goal in the 50th minute, earned him the man of the match award and ensured his club's qualification to the cup final.

However, after a trail of injuries, Zidan was on the receiving end of less playing time. After months of speculations, following the limited playing time and injuries, Werder Bremen announced that, on January 16, 2007, Zidan would be transferred to Mainz for a reported 3 million Euros which made it the largest ever purchase in the club's history, passing his medical on Wednesday 17th. He scored 6 goals in the first 5 matches with new club, catapulting the team from last to 10th place on 1st March 2007 with 27 points. The Egyptian talent also received 50% of votes by "Kicker" magazine and earned himself the title of "Player of the Month" in February in Germany, while Mainz became "Team of the Month" in the German Bundesliga.

Fans of Mainz loved Zidan since his loan spell with the red shirt in which he managed to dazzle them with his skills, talent, and goals. The most notable show of talent was in a game against Bayern München during the 2005/2006 season. Zidan earned a man of the match award when he dribbled past Philipp Lahm and scored against Oliver Kahn. Whilst loaned to Mainz, Zidan even scored a goal against the club he was contracted to, Werder Bremen in 14 seconds. This marked it as the fastest goal scored in the Bundesliga season and is ranked 6th as the quick fastest scored goals in the Bundesliga's history.

In an interview with Bild magazine in Germany, Zidan admitted that he has high aspirations and has ambitions to play in either "F.C. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool or Manchester United". He stated that he wants to play in FC Barcelona within the next 3 years to play alongside Brazilian sensation Ronaldinho or Liverpool to play with Steven Gerrard.

During the 2007 season Zidan contributed many spectacular goals, but could not save Mainz from relegation. The club had only been able to score 34 goals in the entire season, 13 of which, despite having played for less than half of a season, came from the Egyptian forward's feet. Unfortunately Zidan's hard-work and valuable solo contribution was insufficient to prevent Mainz from the depths of despair of being relegated to the second division. However, Zidan's work was noticed by a number of top established clubs based in Spain, France and England as well as German Champions VfB Stuttgart.

Transfer to Hamburg SV

Zidan's run of good form during the 2006/2007 season fueled many transfer rumors, and major clubs as Hamburg SV, newly crowned German Champions Stuttgart and several Spanish clubs were named as possible future clubs. Mainz manager Christian Heidel was very keen to keep Zidan at the club, so the club could mount a promotion challenge for the 2007/2008 2. Fußball-Bundesliga season.

On June 3, 2007 Zidan passed a medical and thereby completed his move to Hamburger SV. He said that he always wanted a move to the north-German club, because he still has many ties to Denmark. The transfer fee was suspected to be about €4,5 million, and Zidan will be earning around €2,5 million per season.

At Hamburg SV

Zidan was handed the number 7 jersey, a number previously worn by Hamburg SV prized player and Iranian captain, Mehdi Mahdavikia. Zidan proved himself as a capable striker and could adjust to the new team in friendly games, often scoring when substituted or scoring 4 goals when he played the full game. Mohamed Zidan scored his first official goal for Hamburg SV in the away DFB Pokal match versus Holstein Kiel. However several appearances in Hamburg's start to the Bundesliga saw Zidan goalless, and often substituted off before the full 90 minutes of the game. Zidan however proved himself as a dangerous striker and playmaker, as he was brought on as a substitute against Bavarian giants Bayern München on the 74th minute. Zidan scored his first Bundesliga goal for Hamburg in the 87th minute. It with the goal bearing a lot of significance as it ended Bayern's early undefeated run in the competition, was the first goal that Oliver Kahn had conceded up until then and was also the third goal that Zidan has scored against Bayern during his years in the Bundesliga.

International career

Weeks before the 2006 African Cup of Nations, the Egyptian Football Association sent a fax on December 23, 2005 to Mainz, asking for an international call-up for Zidan. There was no answer from Mainz or the player for that matter, and as a consequence he drew much criticism from the Egyptian fans and officials alike. He had allegedly chosen not to represent Egypt, as he felt he would lose his starting spot with Mainz, as he felt the Egyptian team had no chance in winning the cup. However in a recent interview, after Egypt had won the African Cup of Nations 2008, he stated that the reason he did not play in 2006 was because of a leg injury.

In a January 2006 interview with the Danish tabloid newspaper B.T., Zidan criticized the Egyptian Football Association for contacting Mainz during Christmas time when everybody was on holiday, and said that the Egyptian national team should have talked to him personally, as they had with Tottenham Hotspur striker Mido. He also said that the Egyptian head coach Shehata had not treated him well, and that the whole thing seemed too unprofessional for him. In April 2006, Hassan Shehata declared he would never again invite Mohamed Zidan to join the national side. He stated, "Zidan refused to join the team when we needed him most, before the Nations Cup. You can never count on these kind of players".

However, on August 5, 2006, just 11 days before Egypt's friendly match against Uruguay, Shehata backed down over his former decision by calling Zidan up for the national team squad. However, Zidan remained doubtful for the friendly match against Uruguay due to an injury that forced him to miss Werder Bremen's season opener. Zidan was called to represent Egypt in the 2008 African Cup of Nations qualification match against Burundi, where he scored his first international goal only 5 minutes after kick-off, besides his overall impressive performance during the match.

Indeed, in Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations opening Group C match against Cameroon, in a match hotly billed as the Group C decider for top and second spots in the group, Zidan turned in a sensational performance, scoring two superb goals, helping the African Champions' cause for defending their title during an impressive 4-2 victory.

Zidan was not out of the woods yet when it comes to controversy as he was reportdly injuried in training with the national team before their match with Angola, ART reporter said that he thought that Zidan is being "spoilt", and that he refused to continue the warm up and treatment for him before the game, this was denied by Shawky Gharib the Egyptian Head Coach, Zidan and the Manager Hassan Shehata.

After missing a few games and a few starts after the display in the opening Cameroon game, Zidan was used as a substitute on numerous occasions, always posing a great threat to the opposition. He was used in the Africa Cup of Nations Ghana 2008 as a striker, sometimes a lone striker, a winger and an offensive midfielder and gave out battling displays. One of the most notable plays was in the final with Cameroon when he applied pressure on Cameroon legend Rigobert Song and effectively wrestling the ball out of the old defender's legs and managed to supply Abu Trika with the final's winning goal. he is renouned for taking Egypt to the africa cup of nations final and to vitory, which gave Egypt two consecutive wins of the tournament.

References

own website : www.zidaneg.com

External links

• Video compilation of Mohamed Zidan on YouTube
• EgyptianPlayers news items
• SoccerEgypt profile
• Danish career statistics at Danmarks Radio
• Profile

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