- Enjoy your trashy--yet pig-free--Cairo streets, Zaki
We often joke about xenophobia and its place in English football. It really seemed to rear its ugly head back when the Glazer family took over in Manchester and it seems to pop up whenever Hicks and Gillet foul things up in Liverpool.
But at the same time, Randy Lerner is very much on the good side with Aston Villa fans, and most Arsenal followers seem okay with the inevitability of Stan Kroenke launching a bid for all Arsenal shares quite soon (another 10 bought today). It seems safe to say, then, that xenophobia in English football does not actually exist, but instead fans react to the actions of the foreign influences coming into the game instead of the nationalities involved.
Apparently, no one thought to let Amr Zaki in on this not-too-subtle distinction during his time at Wigan.
Zaki, now back playing in Egypt with Zamalek after his one-year loan deal with Wigan expired, let it be known today that he was not interested in returning to the EPL with Portsmouth. Whereas the first time he was approached by owner Sulaiman al-Fahim he did not join because he did not want to, now he will not join because the club includes two Israelis and one Algerian.
Zaki wrote on his personal website (and I’m paraphrasing here because I did not find the site, nor do I read Arabic) “Avram Grant, Tal Ben Haim and Nadir Belhadj? That’s a Dealbreaker, ladies.” And that’s the story of how Amr Zaki forever stayed in the city that killed all of its street trash eating pigs over the Swine Flu scare.
The end.
I’m going to walk precipitously along the edge of moral relativism for a second: He’s Egyptian. To him, it’s not xenophobia/anti-Semitism. It’s cultural.
I’m gonna take a hot shower now.
There’s some truth to that. I think that we can assume Zaki, like most footballers, is a raving idiot with a 6th grade education.
It’s funny when Man U has an orgy with their groupies. Not so funny with people like Zaki.
There’s a reason that Israel plays in UEFA.
“Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs” might be my new favorite headline of all time.
well, I just wanted to say that Zaki while in the premier league, he put on quite a show with many goals till his injury. Also, if he doesn’t want to join a club because it has two Israelis and Algerian, that should be left to him as it is something personal. I searched that fact and it said that the Algerian fans killed and injured many Egyptian fans after their last game. Also, Egypt has been to war with Israel two or three times and most middle eastern countries consider Israel to be an enemy. So, we should all let the guy have his personal space and make his own decision and only judge him on the field. By saying that he is doing this cuz he is Egyptian, you are just being like him which makes you a foul as well. I’m sorry. I think he would be a great asset to any team considering the 10 goals he scored in the past season and soccer critics expecting him to be one of the top scorers if it wasn’t for his injury. Thanks, I now rest my case.