Amr Zaki

Amr Hassan Zaki (عمرو زكي; born 1 April 1983) is an Egyptian retired professional footballer who played as a striker.

He has played for numerous different clubs in Egypt, Russia, England, Turkey and Kuwait.

Zaki has made 63 appearances and scored 30 goals for the Egyptian national team.

In his career, Zaki has been nicknamed the "bulldozer" and has been likened to former England striker Alan Shearer.

However, his career has not been without controversy.

He was labelled "highly unprofessional" by former Wigan manager Steve Bruce.

Also, his decision not to join English club Portsmouth due to the nationality of some of the players garnered much criticism in the English press.

Born in Mansoura, Zaki started his career at El Mansoura.

He moved to ENPPI for the 2003–04 season.

At ENPPI, he became the Egyptian Premier League top goalscorer for the 2004–05 season and helped the club win its first trophy, the 2005 Egyptian Cup, as well as being runners-up in the Egyptian Premier League,

After impressing in the 2006 African Cup of Nations, Zaki caught the attention of many clubs, such as El Zamalek and Al-Ahly from Egypt, Al-Ain FC from the UAE, and Nantes from France.

But Zaki later decided to play for Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow, who signed him for a reported sum of €1.7 million.

However, he did not play a single match for Lokomotiv.

In 2006, Zaki moved back to the Egyptian Premier League and signed to play for El Zamalek.

Owing to his powerful physical displays as a forward, fans nicknamed him the "Bulldozer" and newspapers nicknamed him the "Egyptian Gladiator".

On 22 July 2008, Wigan Athletic completed a one-year loan deal to bring Zaki to the JJB Stadium for a sum of £1.5 million.

After scoring two goals in his two pre-season appearances for Wigan, Zaki scored on his league debut on 16 August against West Ham United.

On 30 August he scored his first brace for Wigan in a 5–0 victory over Premier League new-boys Hull City.

On 13 September he scored his fourth goal in as many games in the Premier League as Wigan drew with Sunderland, putting him joint top of the goal scoring charts alongside Jermain Defoe.

On 28 September, Zaki scored again in the Premier League from the penalty spot against Manchester City, and this goal took him to the top of the goal scorers list with 5 goals in 6 games.

He followed it with two more goals against Liverpool, further solidifying his position as top scorer in the English Premier League.

He also scored penalties in 2–1 victories over Portsmouth and Newcastle.

At one point he was the third top scorer in the Premier League behind Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka and Manchester City's Robinho who had 15 and 12 respectively to Zaki's 10, however he failed to add to that tally in which Anelka finished top with 19.

Wigan Athletic chairman Dave Whelan likened Zaki to Alan Shearer, saying "when you look at this lad and his build... He has the same confidence when he gets the ball, he knows where the goal is, he doesn't need to look up, he has this instinct. Strikers like that have an instinct as to where the goal is. You can't describe it, you can't give it to anybody. Former Wigan manager Steve Bruce had also been highly impressed with Zaki, and told the press he believes he is "awesome". Bruce said "he put in a fantastic performance.

If he keeps playing like that he is going to have a real future in the Premier League" and "his physique is great, he has awesome power and pace and of course he wants to score goals which is the important thing".

In April 2009, Zaki failed to return to Wigan Athletic from one of Egypt's World Cup qualification matches, leading his former-club manager, Steve Bruce, to label him as the most unprofessional player he had ever worked with.

His late returns from international duty led to Bruce publicly branding Zaki "highly unprofessional" and fining him the maximum amount permitted, which he has done on more than one occasion;

"Before this latest incident, Zaki had already been fined considerably more than the average person in Britain earns in a year and he will now face another heavy fine".

However, Bruce said that repeatedly fining him does not seem to alter his poor behaviour.

Bruce subsequently confirmed on 17 May 2009 that the club will not be taking up the option of making his loan deal permanent.

Zaki returned to Egyptian Premier League side El Zamalek for the 2009–10 season.

During the summer transfer window he turned down a move to English Premier League club Portsmouth, which had been strongly linked with the player.

This has been largely criticized in the English press, because his refusal was due to the presence of two Algerians and an Israeli on the team.

Zaki said "after Portsmouth signed an Israeli player and also hired an Israeli football director a possible move was ruled out. On top of that, no way could I play at Portsmouth with an Algerian within in [sic] their ranks."

During his time at El Zamalek he struggled with injuries, sickness, goal scoring ducks, and his spot on the team.

On 17 January 2010, Zaki passed a medical with Hull City moving to the club on a 5-month loan.

On 30 January 2010 he made his debut for Hull coming on as substitute for Jozy Altidore in the 69-minute.

Hull went on to draw the match 2–2 with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Amr Zaki quoted "If an offer from a decent club does not come up by the end of my time at Hull, then I will return to Zamalek."

On 17 April 2010 it was confirmed by his agent that his loan had been terminated and he returned to Zamalek.