Mohamed Zidan

Mohamed Zidan

Personal information
Full name	Mohamed Abdullah Zidan
Date of birth	December 11, 1981 (1981-12-11) (age 29)
Place of birth	Port Said, Egypt
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Borussia Dortmund
Number	10
Youth career
1989–1999	Al-Masry
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1999–2003	AB	51	(12)
2003–2005	Midtjylland	47	(30)
2005–2007	Werder Bremen	15	(3)
2005–2007	→ Mainz 05 (loan)	26	(9)
2007	Mainz 05	15	(13)
2007–2008	Hamburger SV	21	(2)
2008–	Borussia Dortmund	64	(13)
National team‡
2005–	Egypt	38	(9)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 7 May 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 5 June 2011

Mohamed Abdullah Zidan (Arabic: محمد عبد الله زيدان ‎) (born December 11, 1981 in Port Said) is an Egyptian footballer. He currently plays as a striker for the German club Borussia Dortmund as well as the Egyptian national team. Nicknamed "Zizou", he is known for putting unique designs in his hair.

Club career

Early career

Zidan was born in Port Said, Egypt, to an Egyptian family. His career started as a striker for his hometown club Al-Masry in 1998.^[1] Al-Masry dropped Zidan because of a perceived lack of passing ability leading to his family moving to Denmark. In his first year in Denmark, while training with B93 for a contract, he played a few games for the Danish-Turkish club FC Anatolien, now Kokkedal BK, in Nivå in the Northern Seeland of Denmark. Zidan was scouted by the Danish Superliga club 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,^[2] and especially his nine^[3] goals in the first three games of FCM's newly built SAS Arena stadium, made the stadium colloquially known as "Zidan Arena".^[4] Also, his number 14 shirt was retired.

Werder Bremen and Mainz 05

Zidan's 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^{[citation needed]} and was awarded the number 9 jersey.^[5] Initially, the striker made quite an impression with the general public, having scored 10 goals in three friendly games for Bremen. Even though he scored an official goal in his first two appearances, he was loaned out to 1. FSV Mainz 05 for the remainder of the 2005–06 season. He went on to score nine goals in 26 appearances, seven as a substitute.^[6] In the 2006–07 pre-season friendly matches, he retained his form with Werder Bremen, starting six of the seven matches he has played and scoring four 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.^[7]

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^{[citation needed]} which made it the largest ever purchase in the club's history, passing his medical on January 17. He scored six goals in the first 5 matches with new club, catapulting the team from last to 10th place on March 1, 2007 with 27 points. The Egyptian talent also received 50% of votes by "Kicker" magazine and earned himself the title of "Player of the year" 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 Munich during the 2005–06 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 sixth as the quick fastest scored goals in the Bundesliga's history.^{[citation needed]}

In an interview with Bild magazine in Germany, Zidan admitted that he had high aspirations and had ambitions to play in either "Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool or Manchester United". He stated that he wanted to play for Barcelona within the next three 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 number of top established clubs based in Spain, France and England as well as German Champions VfB Stuttgart.

Hamburger SV

Zidan's run of good form during the 2006–07 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 2007–08 2. Fußball-Bundesliga season. He was also known as the "hamburglar".

On 3. June 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.

Zidan was handed the number 7 shirt, a number previously worn by Hamburger 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 four goals when he played the full game. Mohamed Zidan scored his first official goal for Hamburger 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 Munich on the 74th minute. Zidan scored his first Bundesliga goal for Hamburg in the 87th minute, with the goal bearing a lot of significance as it ended Bayern's early undefeated run in the competition and 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.

He also scored Hamburg's only goal in the game against Real Madrid in the Emirates Cup which took place in the summer of 2008, and later only played one competitive game for Hamburg during the 2008–09 season, as a late substitute in the first round of the DFB-Pokal against FC Ingolstadt 04.

Borussia Dortmund

Eventually, his time at Hamburg turned out to be for a short period. On August 17, 2008, Zidan's transfer from Hamburg to Borussia Dortmund was confirmed by both clubs' official websites as part of a deal that also saw Croatian international Mladen Petrić moving in the opposite direction, with both players signing four-year contracts. Zidan suffered an injury in his knee that will stop him for playing for almost 6 months or more.^[8][9] Dortmund also confirmed they had received an officially undisclosed transfer fee, which is believed to be worth around 5 million euros.^[10] His transfer to Dortmund reunited him with former Mainz 05 coach, Jürgen Klopp, who was in charge of the club during Zidan's two successful spells there in 2005–06 and the second half of the 2006–07 season. He received the number 10 shirt. His first appearance with Borussia Dortmund was on August 23, 2008 against Bayern Munich. The game ended 1–1.

On the 3rd May 2011, Borussia Dormund were crowned champions of the Bundesliga for the first time since 2002. During the celebration he brought his son Adam onto the pitch

International career

Weeks before the 2006 Africa 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.^[11][12] In April 2006, Hassan Shehata declared he would never again invite Mohamed Zidan to join the national team. 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".^[13] During this time there was also talk about Zidan wanting to play for the Denmark national team, if the Egyptian squad did not want him.

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.^[14] However, Zidan remained doubtful for the friendly match against Uruguay due to an injury that forced him to miss Werder Bremen's season opener.^[15] 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 five 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. Unofficially, he is widely credited for the lone goal in the final against Cameroon, as his great determination to fight for the ball and winning it dramatically from veteran defender Rigobert Song led to him passing the assist to Mohamed Aboutreika for the winning goal, which Zidan literally created from nowhere.

Zidan was not out of the woods yet when it comes to controversy as he was reportedly injured 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 Aboutreika with the final's winning goal. He is renowned for leading Egypt to victory in the Africa Cup of Nations final, which gave Egypt two consecutive wins of the tournament.

In Egypt's opening 2009 Confederations Cup game, Zidan scored two goals against Brazil in a 4–3 losing effort.^[16]

He was called again to join Egypt's squad for the Africa Cup of Nations Angola 2010. He was Egypt's striker along with Emad Moteab. He showed an outstanding performance in most of the matches specially in the opener against Nigeria. He scored his only goal against Algeria in a match that ended 4–0, before he assists another for Mohamed Abdel-Shafy. Again, he supplies the final's winning goal, but not to Aboutreika this time, it was Mohamed Nagy Gedo who finished it in the net.

On March 3, 2010, he scored Egypt's only goal against England in an international friendly which ended 1–3.^[17]

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	September 2, 2006	Cairo International Stadium, Nasr City, Egypt	Burundi	1 – 0	4 – 1	2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying
2.	March 25, 2007	Cairo International Stadium, Nasr City, Egypt	Mauritania	1 – 0	3 – 0	2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying
3.	January 22, 2008	Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi, Ghana	Cameroon	2 – 0	4 – 2	2008 Africa Cup of Nations
4.				3 – 0
5.	June 15, 2009	Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, South Africa	Brazil	1 – 1	3 – 4	2009 Confederations Cup
6.				3 – 3
7.	January 28, 2010	Complexo da Sr. da Graça, Benguela, Angola	Algeria	2 – 0	4 – 0	2010 Africa Cup of Nations
8.	March 3, 2010	Wembley Stadium, London, England	England	0 – 1	3 – 1	Friendly
9.	November 17, 2010	Cairo International Stadium, Nasr City, Egypt	Australia	3 – 0	3 – 0	Friendly
Correct as of November 17, 2010

Honours

Midtjylland

• Danish Superliga top scorer 2004–05
• Danish Superliga top scorer 2005–06

Borussia Dortmund

• Bundesliga: 2010–11

International

• Africa Cup Of Nations Ghana 2008

• Africa Cup Of Nations Angola 2010

References

1. ^ "Autogramm-Archiv profile" (in German). autogramm-archiv.de. http://www.autogramm-archiv.de/spieler/zidan-mohamed.htm. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
2. ^ "Career". Zidan-for-Egypt.com. http://www.zidan-for-egypt.com/index.php?site=career. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Zuper Zidan Did it Again!". egyptianplayers.com. http://egyptianplayers.com/Zidan/articles-zidan118.htm. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
4. ^ Nielsen, Peter (August 30, 2004). "Zidan-show på heden" (in Danish). Jyllands-Posten. 
5. ^ "14 Mohamed Zidan.jpg". egyptianplayers.com. http://www.egyptianplayers.com/assets/14%20Mohamed%20Zidan.jpg. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
6. ^ "Mohamed Zidan". Soccernet. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/stats?id=10203&cc=3888. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
7. ^ Maher, Hatem (August 2, 2006). "Zidan scores as Bremen reach League Cup final". FilBalad.com. http://worldcup.filbalad.com/english/News.asp?NewsID=26286. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
8. ^ "HSV sign Mladen Petric". Hamburger SV official website. August 17, 2008. http://www.hsv.de/index.php?id=24132. Retrieved August 18, 2008. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "BVB Acquires Striker Mohamed Zidan". Borussia Dortmund official website. August 17, 2008. http://www.bvb.de/?%87%ECY%1B%E7%F4%9C%5Bk%E0%87%98. Retrieved August 18, 2008. 
10. ^ "Hamburg swoop for Petric". Sky Sports. August 17, 2008. http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11881_4001017,00.html. Retrieved August 18, 2008. 
11. ^ Hendel, Lars (January 12, 2006). "Zidan om Egypten: De er for uprofessionelle til mig" (in Danish). B.T. 
12. ^ Issa, Islam (January 12, 2006). "Zidan: "Pleased Not To Be Called Up!"". EgyptianPlayers.com. http://www.egyptianplayers.com/Zidan/articles-zidan343.htm. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
13. ^ Shaheen, Amr (April 17, 2006). "Egypt freeze out Zidan". BBC Sport. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/4916312.stm. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
14. ^ "?" (in Arabic). ^{[dead link]}
15. ^ Hassan, Amro (August 14, 2006). "Zidan to play against Uruguay". FilBalad.com. http://worldcup.filbalad.com/english/News.asp?NewsID=26637. Retrieved May 7, 2011. 
16. ^ "Brazil 4–3 Egypt". BBC Sport. June 15, 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/8097813.stm. Retrieved June 17, 2009. 
17. ^ McCarra, Kevin (March 4, 2010). "England 3 Egypt 1". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/03/england-egypt. Retrieved March 9, 2010. 

External links

• Official website
• Video on YouTube
• EgyptianPlayers news items
• SoccerEgypt profile
• Danish career statistics at Danmarks Radio (Danish)
• Mohamed Zidan at fussballdaten.de (German)

Persondata
Name	Zidan, Mohamed Abdullah
Alternative names
Short description	Egyptian footballer
Date of birth	December 11, 1981
Place of birth	Port Said, Egypt
Date of death
Place of death