Mido is back?

Mido has always been the center of controversy when it comes to Egyptian football had joined West Ham in January for a reported wage of only 1,000 English Pounds per week. 4,000 pounds a month for any Egyptian would be considered a very good salary. Not for footballers though. His salary seems insanely low even for Egyptians practicing their trade locally. So how come he is getting payed that low?

Looking back at his history may provide us with a more clear view. Mido left Egypt at the tender age of 16 to join Belgian side Gent. For the next 10 years he has been all over Europe joining a total of 10 clubs from his glory days at Ajax till his forgettable Middlesborough spell. Frankly the kid does not need the money anymore. Recently he has been injury prone due to a very noticeable increase in his weight. This and his attitude has caused him problems with many mangers most notably Egypt's Hassan Shehata who has not called up Mido for the last 2 Nations Cup. He has been dubbed lazy and a trouble maker, well why would you put any effort if you owned a Ferrari at 18 yrs of age. In his defense though I have always though that the lad gave 110% percent when it came to representing his country.

The huge pay cut he took to play again in the Premier League is not because he was unwanted or that he was pimping himself in someway. I think it is a great positive step on his part and it shows that at 26 years of age Mido has matured enough to realize that it is not just about the money. Mido wants to play football again at the highest level, he wants to leave some sort of legacy when it comes to football. He has been around for ages but he is only 26 and has a minimum of a good 6 years of football in him. I'm not sure what the trigger was (maybe his exclusion from the Egyptian team) but it seems Mido has taken a long hard look at himself and seen what his former teams mates have achieved (Zlatan at Barcelona and Drogba at Chelsea) while he took the role of club hopper. Mido seems to be back.

Shame on some footballers who have made fun of his wage cut mainly the likes of Cashly (Ashly) Cole who by the way sold his boyhood club for a few extra quid. Well it was not just a few extra quid, but this kind of attitude was always beyond me. When your are getting payed around 50,000 quid a week is it worth changing settings, causing trouble and leaving friends behind for lets say 80,000 a week? They are both insane amounts of money but I feel other criteria should come in play. The main reason for switching clubs in my option would be to win trophies. Well money is a target early on but later it just rubs me the wrong the way. Mido should be commended on his pioneering action and players like Cashly are afraid others may do it and player like him would only be paid the pathetic sum of 30,000 or 50,000 quid.

Say what you like about Mido but this is a step in the right direction in the hope that he may one day regain his stature in Egypt and in Europe. Good luck to him