Shikabala

Mahmoud Abdelrazek Hassan Fadlala (محمود عبد الرازق حسن فضل الله ; born 5 March 1986), commonly known as Shikabala (شيكابالا ), is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays for Egyptian Premier League club Zamalek.

Shikabala is titled "El Apache" by Zamalek fans.

Growing through the youth ranks of Zamalek, he served the Egyptian club for many years and is considered to be one of the legends of the club.

He previously had stints with PAOK and Sporting CP.

He predominantly plays as a right-winger but can play as a central attacking midfielder and as a left winger.

Shikabala joined the youth academy of Zamalek SC when he was 8-years-old and made his first team appearance in a cup match early in 2002, scoring the winning goal at the age of 16.

He remained with the first team squad since then but had very limited playing time and no professional contract, which is why he was able to leave Zamalek and join PAOK FC in January 2005 for no transfer fee.

When Shikabala initially returned to Egypt from Greece in January 2007, it was amidst controversy as he signed for arch rivals Al Ahly.

"I wanted to return to Zamalek," Shikabala later recalled, "but at this time they had many administrative problems and they refused to sign me."

After the best transfer went viral, Zamalek chairman Mamdouh Abbas and teammate Gamal Hamza were able to convince Shikabala to return to Zamalek.

Shikabala enjoyed a phenomenal start with Zamalek scoring once again on his second debut for the club the winner in a 1–0 match.

Shika quickly carved a place for himself in Henri Michel's starting line-up gradually replacing club legend and fans' idol Hazem Emam.

On 2 July 2007, Shikabala scored his first goal in the derby against Al Ahly in the cup final which ended 4–3 for Al Ahly.

By the start of the 2007–08 season Shikabala had already become the ultimate fan favorite for the curva sud section which belongs to the Zamalek supporters.

The fans sang his name before every game and had special chants solely for him.

Shikabala has been a Zamalek fan favorite and the team's biggest star since returning to the team in 2007.

The ultras adore him and the management refused numerous offers for him notably from Anderlecht and made him the highest paid player in the history of Egypt.

Shikabala has been famous for his skills against alahly the fans adore him and the entire team is built around him.

But his latest act of indiscipline was against former coach and club icon Hassan Shehata when he inexplicably had an altercation with him after being substituted.

Shehata decided to freeze him out of the squad and asked to have him sold immediately, though the Zamalek board has been hesitant so far and are trying to find a solution to keep Shikabala with Zamalek.

Shikabala missed the start of the 2008–09 season due to a ban by FIFA for his illegal transfer to Zamalek.

He returned in late November in fine form but once again Zamalek endured an uninspiring season and finished 6th in the league.

He enjoyed one relatively successful season with PAOK; however, despite the Greek club being adamant that Shikabla would remain at the club until the end of his contract in 2009, he subsequently returned to Zamalek for the 2006–07 season to fulfill army duty in Egypt.

The following season was no different until Zamalek appointed Hossam Hassan in December 2009 who gradually lifted the team from obscurity into consistently challenging for trophies once again.

Under the guidance of Hassan, Shikabala finally matured as a player and started to live up to his potential.

Before that he was very inconsistent and despite scoring fantastic goals and making fancy dribbles, used to drift in an out of games and was largely ineffective at times.

He enjoyed a mixed season where Zamalek struggled in the league, and he faced a lengthy ban after Al Ahly fans chanted profanities against him in the 100th Cairo derby leading to him responding by lifting his shoes to them.

He finished the season on a brighter note though as Zamalek finished as cup winners which was the club's first trophy in 4 years.

In 2010–11, Shikabala and Hassan led Zamalek to the top of the table for the first time in years.

On 27 June 2012, Zamalek had agreed to a loan offer from Italian Serie A side Napoli for 1.8 million Euros (13.5 million Egyptian pounds).

The loan deal would last one year, with the option to permanently sign Shikabala after the 2012–13 season.

A few days later, Napoli failed to comment on the deal and this sparked controversy.

Napoli stated that they only have interest in the player but they hadn't made a formal offer while the Napoli coach stated they know nothing about the deal.

Reports in the Italian media revealed that this is just another rumour that even Italian mercato expert Gianluca Di Marzio has called it an "April fool that is two months late".

Zamalek then stated that Napoli had failed to send agent to Cairo to officially sign Shikabala on the agreed upon deadline and the deal fell through.

There was still speculation over whether Napoli would send an official offer for Shikabala throughout the 2012 summer transfer window.

Several reports stated that Qatari Lekhwiya SC, Saudi Al Shabab and Ittihad Jeddah, Romanian Vaslui, German VfB Stuttgart, Spanish Espanyol, Napoli and their Italian counterparts Udinese were all battling for Shikabala's signature.

In late July, Emirate side Al Wasl offered 600,000 Euros for a one-year loan offer for Shikabala, however Zamalek refused the bid asking for $1.5 million US.

After long negotiations between Zamalek and Al Wasl, Shikabala was officially loaned to Al Wasl for one year at a fee of $1.25 million US.

Zamalek would stay on the top until the closing stages of the season where they crumbled and Al Ahly ended up as the league winners for the 7th season in a row, despite that Shikabala finished the season as top scorer with 13 goals and had two magical assists against Al Ahly in the derby.