Amr Zaki Bio

Amr Hassan Zaki (Arabic: عمرو حسن زكي‎) (born 1 April 1983 in Mansoura, Egypt) is a Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a striker and is currently signed to Egyptian Premier League club Zamalek.

Zaki started his career at El Mansoura before moving 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, their best position ever.

After impressing in the 2006 African Nations Cup, Zaki caught the attention of many clubs, such as El Zamalek and Al-Ahly from Egypt, Al-Ain FC from the UAE, and FC 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 July 22nd 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 September 13 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, scored again in the Premier League from the penalty spot against Manchester City, 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 striker Nicolas Anelka and Manchester City striker/winger Robinho who have 15 and 12 respectively to Zaki's 10, however he failed to add to that tally in which Anelka finished top with 19. If Zaki makes his move to Wigan a permanent one, it will be for the estimated price of £12 million. According to sources in England and Zaki himself, Aston Villa had an £11 million bid for him in the winter transfer window turned down by Wigan. He is now being chased by two French Ligue 1 clubs and a newly promoted Premier League club.

Zaki plays for the Egyptian National Team, In the 2006 African Cup of Nations Zaki scored the winning goal for Egypt in the semi-final against Senegal late in the second half, with his first touch moments after coming off the bench to replace a visibly irate Mido (whose argument with coach Hassan Shehata held up play and resulted in a six month international ban from the EFA for the player.) Egypt later went on to win their fifth continental title.

Zaki repeated his strong performances two years later in CAN 2008, scoring a goal against Zambia in the group stage and another in the quarter final against Angola. Additionally, he scored another header and then added another goal in the semi-final match against Ivory Coast. Egypt again went on to win the title for a record sixth time. He was chosen in the CAN 2008 All Star Starting XI.