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Zidan was interviewed and featured in
famous German magazine Rhein-Zeitung. EgyptianPlayers.com
present an exclusive translation.
Read also:
From Vale do Garrao - show time for the
juggling artist...
Zidan
wants to become a great player in Germany
An
ambitious juggling artist
During the training seasons in Vale do Garrao Mohamed
Zidan let the ball dance on his feet, his knees, his
head or his neck. The lively Egyptian is like a circus
artist
at the training camp of Mainz 05 at the Algarve in Portugal.
But he has serious and ambitious goals: "I want
to become a great player in Germany."
Blue sky at the Algarve, fine sand at the beach and
a light wind. The sun shines above the dark blue water
and the waves sound noisy. Holiday feeling. Mohamed
Zidan sits on a bank and he thinks: "It's like
home here," the 24 years old says. His home town
Port Said also has a similar coast. Zidan lived in the
centre of the Egyptian port town until he became 7.
"I was at the beach often, very often, to play
football at the beach." Since Zidan could walk
he never left his house without a ball, in the morning
on the way to school or in the afternoon with friends.
"I always took a ball with me, very often a tennis
ball," the lively striker says. "When I had
no ball with me, I took a stone." The important
thing is he had something to play with - every time
and everywhere. A life without a ball was unthinkable
for him. "As a young boy," tells Zidan, "I
also took a ball with me in my bed."
He never needed to be motivated by somebody to play
with the ball. So Zidan admits today: "I never
learnt football, I always played it." At the age
of nine Zidan joined his first team in his home town,
El Masry Port Said, where he played for 8 years, but
his dream was: "Playing football in Europe."
Zidan had luck, because his parents supported their
son at the realisation of his dream. Zidan's father
had a company; he traded car parts and so travelled
to Europe very often. "They said that they will
help me in fulfilling my dream to play in Europe when
I was old enough," the enjoyable footballer reports.
Then at the age of 17 it happened. His father and his
mother moved with him to Denmark, where the family stayed
with friends. After a month his parents returned to
Egypt, but Zidan stayed, and signed his first professional
contract.
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