Mohamed Zidan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Personal information
Full name Mohamed Zidan
Date of birth December 11, 1981 (age 25)
Place of birth    Port Said, Egypt
Height 1,75 m
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club 1. FSV Mainz 05
Number 25
Youth clubs
1989-1999 Al-Masry
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1999-2003
2003-2004
2005
2005-2006
2006
2007-present		 Akademisk Boldklub
FC Midtjylland
Werder Bremen
1. FSV Mainz 05 (loan)
Werder Bremen
1. FSV Mainz 05		 51 (12)
47 (30)
10 (2)
26 (9)
5 (1)
4 (6)   
National team2
2005-present Egypt 5 (3)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of January 18, 2007.
2 National team caps and goals correct
as of September 2, 2006.
* Appearances (Goals)

Mohamed Zidan (Arabic: محمد زيدان‎) (born December 11, 1981 in Port Said) is an Egyptian footballer who is currently a striker for German club 1. FSV Mainz 05. Zidan has so far earned 5 caps for the Egyptian national team.

Contents

[edit] Club career

His football career started as a striker for his hometown club Al-Masry in 1988.[1] In 1999 he moved abroad to play for the Danish Superliga side Akademisk Boldklub (AB). In June 2003, he moved to the legaue rivals FC Midtjylland (FCM), as AB experienced financial hardship. At FCM, he became league top scorer in the 2003-04 season, and he was awarded the Rookie, and Player of the Year the following season. In all, he scored 30 goals in 47 appearances for FC Midtjylland,[2] and especially his nine goals in the first three games of FCM's newly built SAS Arena stadium, made the stadium colloquially known as "Zidan Arena".[3]

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. Although he scored in his first two appearances, he was loaned out to FSV Mainz 05, ahead of the 2005-06 season. He went on to score 9 goals, including a goal against German giants Bayern Munich, in 27 appearances, including 7 as a substitute.[4] In the 2006-07 pre-season friendly matches, he retained his impressive and consistent form with Werder Bremen, starting 6 of the 7 matches he has played and scoring 4 goals. Zidan's impressive 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.[5]

Zidan seemed subsided as soon as he joined Werder Bremen. And after months of speculations, following limited playing time and injuries to Zidan, Werder Bremen announced that, on January 16, 2007, Zidan is switching to Mainz 05 for a reported 3 million Euros which makes it the largest ever purchase by Mainz05 in the club's history, Zidan passed his medical on Wednesday the 17th. Since then, he has been having a recent run in the first team lately, scoring 6 goals in the first 5 matches he played for his side and catapulted 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 of February" in Germany and Mainz became "Team of the month" in the German Budesliga.

Fans of Mainz05 have loved Zidan since his loan spell with the red shirt inwhich he managed to dazzel them with his skills and talent and goals, most notably the flick he did in Mainz's game against German Giants Bayern Munchen in 2005/2006 season in Main's stadium, a game that ended 1-0 for Mainz through Zidan's brillience when he dribbled past Philip Lahm using Ronalinho's outward flick and then shooting powerfully the ball with his left beating Oliver Kahn in the Bayern goal. Zidan played that game while still maintaining a knee injury which made him rest more games after he had not fully recovered from his injury, much to the fury of Hassan Shehata, the Egyptian national team manager.

In a recent interview with "Bild" magazine in Germany, Zidan admitted he has high aspirations and plans to play in either " Barcelona or Real Madrid or Chelsea or Manchester". He stated that he wants to play in Barcelona within the next 3 years and play alongside Brazilian sensation Ronaldinho.

[edit] 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 Zidan 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.

In a January 2006 interview with the Danish tabloid newspaper B.T., Zidan critizised the Egyptian Football Association for contacting Mainz during Christmas time when everybody where 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 Hassan Shehata had not treated him well, and that the whole thing seemed just too unprofessional for him.[6][7] 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".[8]

However, on August 5, 2006, just 11 days before Egypt's friendly match against Uruguay, Hassan Shehata backed down over his former decision by calling Zidan up for the national team squad.[9] However, Zidan remained doubtful for the friendly match against Uruguay due to an injury that forced him to miss Werder Bremen's season opener.[10] 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 the kick-off, besides his overall impressive performance during the match.

[edit] References

  1. ^ (German) Autogramm-Archiv profile
  2. ^ His Career at Zidan-for-Egypt.com
  3. ^ (Danish) Peter Nielsen, "Zidan-show på heden", Jyllands-Posten, August 30, 2004
  4. ^ 9 Mohamed Zidan | Striker at Soccernet
  5. ^ Hatem Maher, Zidan scores as Bremen reach League Cup final, FilBalad.com, August 2, 2006
  6. ^ (Danish) Lars Hendel, "Zidan om Egypten: De er for uprofessionelle til mig", B.T., January 12, 2006
  7. ^ Islam Issa, Zidan: "Pleased Not To Be Called Up!", EgyptianPlayers.com, January 12, 2006
  8. ^ Amr Shaheen, Egypt freeze out Zidan, BBC Sport, April 17, 2006
  9. ^ (Arabic) [1]
  10. ^ Amro Hassan, Zidan to play against Uruguay, FilBalad.com, August 14, 2006

[edit] External links


1. FSV Mainz 05 - Current Squad

1 Wache | 2 Cha | 4 Noveski | 5 Demirtas | 6 Addo | 7 Feulner | 8 Gerber | 9 Azaouagh | 10 Friedrich | 11 Ruman | 13 Peković | 14 Szabics | 15 Diakité | 17 Rose | 18 Banouas | 19 Babatz | 20 Jovanović | 22 Amri | 23 Sela | 24 Weigelt | 25 Zidan | 26 Gunesch | 29 Wetklo | 30 Ischdonat | 32 Edu | 33 D. Vrančić | 34 M. Vrančić | 35 Pupalović | 36 Damm | 40 Niculae | Manager: Klopp
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/o/h/Mohamed_Zidan_c171.html"