Mido has been striving long to regain the stardom he last enjoyed five years ago, but it is kind of difficult to believe that his return to Ajax Amsterdam will reignite his career. After an array of failed attempts to recapture his top form, the 27-year-old made a comeback to Ajax, where he had spent some of his glorious years when he was a teenager. Logically speaking, he will have a tedious season-long stint at Amsterdam Arena that by the end of this term will leave him more troubled and unsettled than he already is. Martin Jol has admired Mido since they worked together at Tottenham Hotspur but needless to say, the towering striker is not one of the Dutch tactician's best options at Ajax. Jol usually depends on a potent strike partnership consisting of Luis Suarez, the Eredivisie top scorer last season, and Dutch-Moroccan hitman Mounir El-Hamdaoui. Mido will certainly be no match for any of the influential aces and with the potential arrival of another marksman at Ajax, the Egyptian nomad is bound to be distant last in the pecking order. As a matter of fact, Ajax have brought Mido back only because he accepted to return on a cut-price pay-as-you-play deal, so he might not cost them a dime. The capital outfit, whose resources are 'limited' these days, needed an inexpensive substitute striker while Mido was not really approached by major suitors this summer, so the deal was struck. Mido says he will be vying with Suarez and El-Hamdaoui for a starting berth, but the fact remains that the former Zamalek prodigy is prone to failure at Ajax or elsewhere, thanks to his wretched condition. Impossible Rebirth?
Mido will certainly be no match either for Suarez or El-Hamdaoui, and with the potential arrival of another marksman at Ajax the Egyptian nomad is bound to be distant last in the pecking order. Mido's last fruitful spell was at Tottenham in the 2005-2006 season, when he moved to White Hart Lane from AS Rome on a loan basis. In that season, the charismatic lad made his name at the Premier League by hitting 11 goals, a scoring tally that turned him into a crowd pleaser at the London side back then. Nonetheless, he has been anything but prolific ever since. Mido earned a permanent contract with Spurs the next season only to make very few appearances, during which he got his name on the score sheet just once. His role drastically diminished at the time as a result of a succession of injuries as well as Jol's obvious preference for current Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov. For few weeks after his arrival at Middlesbrough in the summer of 2007, Mido breathed life into his career upon producing a handful of fine displays, but again was hampered by recurring injury problems. During his stay at the Riverside, Mido spent three loan periods with Wigan Athletic, West Ham United and his boyhood club Zamalek. Frustration followed him wherever he went though. Each of these unsuccessful adventures took a toll on Mido's fitness and goal-scoring form over the past years, causing him to lose his status as a high-profile forward and a place in Egypt's squad. As Mido grows older, his aim to get fit becomes harder and harder while his hope of being back in the limelight evaporates. So I wonder if his rebirth is even possible!
