Amr Hassan Zaki (; born 1 April 1983) is an Egyptian former 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.
Club career Early career 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 Egypt 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 from the UAE, and Nantes from France.Amr Zaki – Bio page But Zaki later decided to play for Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow, who signed him for a reported sum of €1.7 million. Amr Zaki reveals to EP: "Signed For Lokomotiv Moscow!" 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".Wigan sign 'world's best striker'
Wigan Athletic 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 five goals in six 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 United. 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 that "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 believed he was "awesome". Bruce said that "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".
Controversy 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.STEVE BRUCE STATEMENT Wigan Athletic, 2 April 2009 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.
Return to Zamalek 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 that "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 their ranks." During his time at El Zamalek he struggled with injuries, sickness, goal scoring ducks, and his spot on the team.
Hull City On 17 January 2010, Zaki passed a medical with Hull City moving to the club on a five-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 that he returned to Zamalek.
Return to Zamalek Zaki returned to Zamalek at the beginning of the 2010–11 season and gave phenomenal performances, becoming the team's top scorer after scoring three goals in the league's first four matches. However, in October 2010, Zaki suffered a career threatening injury that kept him out for the better part of ten months. Zaki returned from injury and participated with Zamalek in the Egypt Cup, scoring twice in the semi-final match against defending champions Haras El-Hodood, thus leading his team to qualify for the final with a 2–1 victory.
In November 2011, Zaki had a financial dispute with Zamalek board over his unpaid wages, claiming that he hasn't been paid over a year. The dispute lasted three months, before Zamalek chairman, Mamdouh Abbas, paid Zaki a large percentage of his late wages. Zaki made his first appearance for Zamalek after the dispute, coming on as a second-half substitute in a Round of 64 CAF Champions League game against Tanzanian club Young Africans. Zaki scored the equalizer goal in the 74th minute, and the game finished 1–1.
After his return to Zamalek from his loan moves from Hull City and Wigan, Zaki received many offers to play abroad, including good offers from Russia, China and France, but Zamalek kept on refusing to let him go, as he was considered one of the team's main pillars and star players.
On 5 June 2012, Zaki told Egyptian sports website FilGoal that he relished a return to play in England again. This came in parallel with Egypt U-23 coach Hany Ramzy statement that Zaki may be called up to play for Egypt in the 2012 London Olympics U-23 tournament as one of the three allowed overage players. Zaki commented on that by saying: “I think it's a good chance for me to re-appear on English grounds. It is an opportunity to be watched again." Eventually, Zaki was not picked for the Olympics by Ramzy. However, since Zamalek continued to face financial problems throughout 2011 and 2012, Zaki started to be considered on his way out of the club as a way to bring in cash. Gaziantepspor and other Turkish sides, along with some English teams and other Persian Gulf sides, had all shown their interest in Zaki. On 20 July 2012, English Championship side Blackpool sent an official request to the player to go on a one-week trial at the club. Zaki and Zamalek had accepted the trial offer, but Blackpool later pulled out of the transfer negotiations and cancelled their trial offer. Fellow Championship club Middlesbrough had also shown an interest as well. Zaki stated his desire to join Middlesbrough after speaking with his former teammate Mido about the club and insisted on a two-year contract, but manager Tony Mowbray only offered Zaki a deal until the end of the season. Zaki turned down the offer. Zaki's agent later said: "Everything was agreed, his medical, his contract, his house, but Middlesbrough changed their minds at the last minute. Amr wanted to join Middlesbrough and help them win promotion, it was not about money. Amr was ready to travel". A Middlesbrough spokesman stated that Zaki was one of a number of players being chased by the club, and no offer was submitted to the player.
Elazığspor In late July 2012, Turkish side Gaziantepspor offered Zamalek club €250,000 for Zaki, and Zamalek accepted the offer on 31 July 2012. However, speculation appeared on the bid after Gaziantepspor failed to send the official contract on the agreed deadline. Because of that, Zaki's move to Gaziantepspor was thrown into doubt, and fellow Turkish side Elazığspor began to show interest in signing the player. On 6 August, Elazığspor club official Selçuk Cengiz Öztürk stated that Elazığspor have reached an agreement with Zamalek to sign Zaki according to Elazığspor manager Bülent Uygun and it was expected that he would join on a three-year deal. He later stated that he would arrive in Egypt on Monday 7 August to complete the move. On the next day, Gaziantepspor officially dropped out of the negotiations with Zamalek due to unstated reasons. Later on, Elazığspor officially signed Zaki on a two-year deal, for the same price which Gaziantepspor had previously offered (€250,000) During the contract agreement phase, Zaki requested to put a special clause in his contract, which stated that if Elazığspor get relegated to the Turkish second division, Zaki would be free to leave the club if he wanted.
After missing the first two games of the season due to registration and contractual problems, Zaki made his debut for Elazığspor in a 0–3 loss against Kasimpasa, coming in as a substitute in halftime. After losing 0–3 to Beşiktaş in his second game, Zaki put in a wonderful performance in his third appearance against Bursaspor, scoring an assist and scoring a disallowed goal due to Zaki being in an offside position. After that, a couple of injuries kept Zaki on the sidelines a few times, and he was able to make only eight appearances out of potential 17.
Near the end of December 2012, Zaki asked Elazığspor to allow him to leave the club, as he had received a number of offers from England, France, Ukraine and the Persian Gulf region. Elazığspor board conceded to give up on the player for a fee of €400,000. However, no club met the €400,000 price tag that the Turkish Club had put on Zaki, and Zaki later agreed with the club board to rescind his contract due to his not receiving his wages since two months. In late January, Zaki had officially rescinded his contract with the club he became a free agent. He finished his short stint with the Turkish club without scoring any goals and with only one assist.
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