Mido’s mission to export Egyptian talent to Europe

Mido is currently working hard to find and develop the next generation of talent in his native North Africa despite the fact that he was no stranger to controversy when he first started playing.

Mohamed Salah, a former Tottenham player, and Omar Marmoush, one of Liverpool’s top players, both claimed the title of premier league player when they both signed for Manchester City in January.

Mido, 42, told World Football on the BBC World Service, “The gap is enormous if you compare the number of Egyptian players who play in any of the top African nations in football.”

Egypt cannot compete with its only four or five players spread out across Europe.

Mido is utilizing the experiences he has had in his own career to support the development of the students at his Cairo academy, The Maker.

Before turning 30 in 2013, he had a stint at 11 different clubs in seven different nations over the course of 14 years as a player. He was a nomadic figure.

Additionally, he had conflicts with coaches, most notably with Ronald Koeman and with Egypt at Ajax, first with Marco Tardelli, and then with Hassan Shehata when he later played for the national team in the dugout.

Mido continued, “I never feel bad about pointing my finger at myself as an example.”

I constantly tell them, “OK, I played for big clubs, but I could have done better.”

“I don’t feel any regrets about this character because I know I’ll still make the same mistakes,” he said.

However, the challenges I faced were that sometimes I gave up easily, and other times the decision was the easiest for me to make: moving to another club.

At The Maker, Mido has about 100 boys working on the project, and he wants to include more girls.

He claims that the best chance for his intake to succeed in Europe lies in focusing on mental strength and adaptability.

He explained that “we have a top psychology team that is daily working with the kids.”

The majority of our boys can speak English well. Some of us as Egyptians encountered challenges because we didn’t speak a foreign language, which makes it easier to adapt and communicate with our new teammates.

Being able to interact with various cultures is very important.

“You can enter Europe if you have the right mindset, are physically strong, can speak multiple languages, be tactical aware, and have the skills, of course.”

Mido started out playing for Zamalek before moving on to Cairo to play for the giants for two more years.

Egyptian clubs have won five of the last six titles while winning five of the previous six, but Mido’s ultimate goal is for his young players to establish themselves in Europe.

He stated that “at least four or five players should be our main objective in Europe.”

“And we are having a dream in our heads that 60 to 70 players will have left this training program and started playing in various European countries in ten years.”

And even if they are playing in Europe, we will be monitoring them, following them, and having people around them to continue to work on their development.

This is a wonderful feeling for me because you are supporting young children in their development and pursuit of their dreams.