Latest news with #Mido
The National
15-05-2025
- Sport
- The National
FA Cup final: Omar Marmoush aims to complete magical season by helping Man City beat Crystal Palace
For the 17-year-old kid, wiry and fresh-faced, it was a breakthrough moment. Omar Marmoush had already been talked up locally as a star of the future. He had convinced his parents, initially sceptical, that football could offer a real future for their bright, determined son. Now he had some numbers to show for his belief in himself: A first senior start as a professional, and a first goal in the grown-up ranks. It was the tail end of 2016, and, in a first round Egyptian Cup tie played to a scant audience – crowd restrictions were in place across Egypt's club football – the meeting of Wadi Degla and Pharco was the opportunity for Mido, the Wadi Degla manager and himself a prodigy as a player, to grant Marmoush his springboard. After a smattering of substitute appearances in the league, Mido had told Marmoush to show what he could do with substantial minutes on the clock. He picked him in the starting XI for the first time and, shortly after half time, the tyro scored his team's first goal of a 3-0 win. It was a threshold moment in the striker's phenomenal rise. There have been 73 senior club goals since, spread across Egyptian, German and English football that, on Saturday, might deliver the first senior trophy of Marmoush's career. The kid who made his first tentative steps as a first-teamer in the Egyptian Cup eight-and-a-half years ago will be at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday targeting the most famous domestic trophy in football – the FA Cup. It is a measure of Marmoush's impact since joining Manchester City in January, from Eintracht Frankfurt, that his case for starting in the final against Crystal Palace is perhaps the most pressing of the questions facing City manager Pep Guardiola – even with top scorer Erling Haaland back from injury. Guardiola rested Marmoush for most of last weekend's goalless draw against bottom club Southampton in the Premier League. It was a deflating scoreline against a team long relegated, with the Egyptian Marmoush, brought on with only six minutes remaining, coming closest to changing the outcome, thumping a shot against the crossbar. 'Maybe he should have played more minutes,' admitted Guardiola, 'because his creativity was really important.' There was a strong hint, too, that Marmoush will be given preferential consideration as attacking partner to Haaland from kick-off at Wembley. 'They can play together, as they played earlier this season before the injury from Erling. Omar is a player who has to move close to the box, the impact has been really good since he arrived,' said the City coach. That impact can be gauged in several ways. The City who made their worst start, in terms of attacking potency, to a Premier League season in 18 years have upped a gear in the period since Marmoush arrived. They have been less beatable, for one thing: 10 defeats across competitions up until the first week of January compared with five, including in both legs of the Uefa Champions League play-off against Real Madrid, in the period that Marmoush has been animating the centre-forward or wide left positions. City have become more resilient, too. Marmoush's stamp on that characteristic is clear. A low point of a markedly substandard campaign for a team who had won six of the seven previous Premier League titles would be the 5-1 loss to Arsenal in early February. Marmoush promptly scored a hat-trick in the next fixture, a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle United, and although the Egyptian would be on the losing side against his compatriot Mohamed Salah's dominant new champions Liverpool, he again ensured that loss would not be followed by another, scoring and assisting in the subsequent 2-2 draw with Brighton. He led the comeback against Palace in the league, too, a fixture from barely a month ago that City have been studying closely ahead of Saturday's confrontation. Guardiola's men were stung by two early Palace goals, irritated at a penalty shout against Marmoush that had been turned down at 1-0, and revived once the Egyptian had levelled the scores at 2-2. City went on to add three more unanswered goals. If that's an encouraging precedent, so is the fact that City have not lost a domestic fixture in which Marmoush has started in the past three months, edging themselves into the top four of the table and putting themselves on course to qualify for next season's Uefa Champions League. That has usually been a given during the eight-year reign of Guardiola as manager and if there is no disguising the disappointments of 2024/25, the FA Cup run offers the hope of a trophy, at least. Here, too, Marmoush has played a vital role, match-winner in the 2-1 quarter-final win over Bournemouth, provider of City's second goal in the 2-0 semi-final victory over Nottingham Forest. He is entitled to feel he has done enough to be offered a major role in the last step of the journey. And indeed to merit that first senior silverware of a career now fully blossoming, Marmoush can look back over a memorable nine months. As the Bundesliga reaches its conclusion, he remains, despite having appeared in only the first half of Eintracht Frankfurt's campaign, within the top six of the German top-flight's top marksman for 2024/25. His 15 goals in 17 matches before moving to Manchester were scored at a per-minute rate very close to that of Bayern Munich's Harry Kane, who will almost certainly pick up the award for Bundesliga's leading scorer to go with the career-first league title he secured with the Bavarians. As for the illustrious list of players with the best 2024/25 goal contribution statistics – goals plus direct assists – in Europe's top five leagues, Marmoush's Bundesliga and Premier League tally for the season (21 goals and 12 assists) is behind only to Kane's 25 plus nine in Germany and Salah's 28 plus 18 in England. There are no official prizes for that achievement, but there are for winning an FA Cup – a medal Marmoush would cherish as a lasting endorsement of a magical season.
The Sun
12-05-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Tony Pulis set for shock new job in Egypt five years since Stoke legend's last role at Sheff Weds
STOKE management legend Tony Pulis is poised to swap the Potters for the pyramids by taking charge of Egypt's biggest club. The Welshman had six Premier League seasons at the bet365 Stadium, plus two as Crystal Palace boss. 2 Pulis, 67, left his last management job at Sheffield Wednesday in 2020. But he has now reportedly begun talks with Cairo club Zamalek about becoming their director of football. The 14-time national champions and winners of 13 African titles are currently fifth in the Egyptian Premier League. Pulis has flown to Cairo after an invite from ex-Tottenham star Mido, who is a Zamalek board member. Former Zamalek president Mamdouh Abbas hailed the veteran manager's arrival, acclaiming him as "one of the most prominent coaches in the history of the Premier League." Abbas wrote on social media: "The purpose of Pulis' visit is to study Zamalek's football infrastructure, and to assess the potential for development in line with international standards." Football is huge in Egypt, with Zamalek playing at the 75,000-capacity Cairo International Stadium. Premier League stars Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush are national icons in the north African country. 2 Pulis has a wealth of management experience since first taking charge of Bournemouth in 1992. He had two spells as Stoke boss, totalling 10 years, where his team built a reputation for a no-nonsense style of play that featured lethal long throws from Rory Delap. He also led Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth, Plymouth, West Brom and Middlesbrough.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Bugatti's Legacy in Horology: A Century of Innovation in Timekeeping
Read the full story on Modern Car Collector For more than a century, Bugatti has epitomized engineering excellence, craftsmanship and innovation—not just in automobiles but in horology. The French marque's deep-rooted connection to watchmaking has yielded some of the most exquisite timepieces, reflecting its commitment to precision and artistry. Bugatti's association with fine watchmaking dates back to 1925, when Swiss brand Mido recognized the automaker's dedication to performance and design. Mido crafted a limited series of gold watches, shaped like Bugatti's distinctive horseshoe grille, to be gifted to the marque's top drivers and mechanics. These early collaborations set the foundation for a relationship between automotive engineering and horology that would span generations. The connection strengthened in the 1930s, when Ettore Bugatti commissioned legendary Swiss watchmaker Breguet to design dashboard chronographs for the Type 41 Royale—the most luxurious car of its era. The precision-crafted timepieces, featuring tachometers to measure speed, were seamlessly integrated into the vehicle's design, reinforcing Bugatti's pursuit of perfection. Decades later, as Bugatti underwent a renaissance in the early 2000s, its watchmaking partnerships evolved. The marque teamed up with Parmigiani Fleurier to develop the Bugatti Type 370—a revolutionary "driver's watch" inspired by the Veyron hypercar's gearbox. This manually wound timepiece, recognized as "Watch of the Year" in 2006, symbolized a new chapter in the automaker's horological journey. In recent years, Bugatti has pushed the limits of timepiece engineering through a collaboration with Jacob & Co. The partnership has led to groundbreaking creations, including the Bugatti Chiron Tourbillon, which features a miniature W16 engine automaton. The latest addition, the Bugatti Tourbillon, seamlessly integrates elements of the marque's newest hypercar, embodying the fusion of automotive and horological mastery. With another exclusive edition set to debut in April, Bugatti continues to redefine the boundaries of luxury craftsmanship, ensuring its timeless legacy in both automobiles and horology endures for generations. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
The National
27-01-2025
- Sport
- The National
‘He's got something different': Former Egypt star Mido believes Omar Marmoush can thrive at Man City
Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Mido has hailed Omar Marmoush's "strong character" and "patience" as the Egyptian international embarks on a new journey in his career at Manchester City. Just two days after his arrival at the Etihad Stadium from Eintracht Frankfurt, Marmoush, 25, made his debut for City on Saturday, starting in their 3-1 Premier League victory over Chelsea. Manager Pep Guardiola said Marmoush made 'incredible movements' during the game, while star forward Erling Haaland said 'you could see he has something special' when discussing the Egyptian's first-half performance that saw him make multiple shots on target, including a disallowed goal. Marmoush had an explosive start to the season with Frankfurt, scoring 20 goals and 14 assists in 26 appearances for the German club across competitions. But long before this landmark campaign, the Cairene had made an early impression on Mido, who coached a 17-year-old Marmoush at Wadi Degla, giving him his first taste of first-team football back in 2016. 'From the very first day I saw Omar, I knew he's got something different,' Mido, who boasts Roma and Ajax among his former clubs and also won 51 caps for Egypt as a striker, told The National. 'From the first couple of weeks of interacting with him, I could see that he has the mentality of a real professional. He is well-educated and it's very important for a football player to be educated. He worked on himself and developed very quickly. 'I changed his position. He was a left winger and I'm the first person to play him as a striker and I gave him the confidence to play in the [Egyptian Premier] league. From day one you could see he is different – different as a player and different as a person. A strong personality, very well-mannered and respectful. 'Right now, he is reaping the rewards of all the effort he has put in over the years and the concentration and discipline he adopted throughout his career and I'm honestly very proud of him.' After a year playing for Mido at Wadi Degla, Marmoush signed for German club Wolfsburg age 18. It took him three years before he broke into the first team, making his Bundesliga debut in May 2020, and he went through loan stints at then second-division side St Pauli and Stuttgart before he was scooped up by Frankfurt in the summer of 2023. Almost nine years after Mido handed him his first-team debut, and having paid his dues across multiple divisions in Germany, Marmoush has now found a new home at Manchester City, with the English champions making him their €70 million-plus signature signing in the January transfer window. 'It shows you his real character, that he's got a strong character and he works on himself. He has patience,' Mido said of Marmoush's arduous path to the Premier League. 'These early stages, I lived through it, and it's very hard. It's hard to adapt in the beginning, and to be alone while all your friends are on their summer vacation and you're at pre-season training. 'People need to understand that these young players, to reach where they have reached, they have worked really hard, they really suffered, and they sacrificed so much in order to play football at an elite level. 'So [Mohamed] Salah and Marmoush and [Mohamed] Elneny and all the players who have played at that level, they worked really hard. They need to be the true examples for our youth. 'Every parent should tell their children to look up to these players and to dream and to work on their dream. I believe that Egypt and the Arab world as a whole should capitalise on the success of these players by using them as examples for our kids. 'The parents should speak to their children about these success stories, not necessarily for their children to become footballers, but to talk about these success stories in general and show them how they have to put goals and targets for themselves, how they have to believe in themselves, that they have to fight. That should be a target for every father and mother out there.' Last year, City became the first club in the history of English football to win four top-flight titles in a row, but their chances of a fifth consecutive Premier League crown are slim as they lie fourth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Liverpool. Marmoush is joining their ranks at a time of struggle – at least by their own standards – and while Mido believes City is the right place for his compatriot to develop, he admits acclimating to a new team is always easier during periods of success. 'No, it's not good for him of course,' said Mido when asked if there could be less pressure on Marmoush joining a team that is struggling as opposed to previous years when the club was dominant. 'One of the most important factors that can help you adapt quickly is that you're joining a team that is already doing well. It's better if you're joining a team that is winning so you can adapt quickly; they will help you. Because there's a big difference between people working under pressure and people working without pressure. 'But on the other hand, it could be a chance for him to play and contribute right away.' Mido says Marmoush 'has got the pace' and can benefit a great deal from playing for Pep Guardiola but added: 'My only concern is that Manchester City are expecting to find out the verdict in their case [of alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules] pretty soon, in February I think, and they are awaiting an important decision. 'So the only concern I have for Omar is if the verdict comes out against City. Because if that happens, it will be a difficult situation for the club. There could be deduction points, or the threat of relegation or things like that. I really hope that doesn't happen.' Marmoush can be utilised in multiple positions up front but he says he is most comfortable playing behind the main striker. He started on the left side of City's attack on Saturday, alongside Haaland and Phil Foden, and hewill likely continue to be used on either flank at his new club. 'My only advice to him is to listen to Guardiola. To enjoy working with one of the best coaches in the world and to learn from him,' said Mido. 'The tempo of the game in the Premier League is higher than anywhere else. So to pick up the rhythm quickly, that's the most important thing.' City have a crucial stretch of games coming up as they face Club Brugge in a must-win clash in the Uefa Champions League on Wednesday before Premier League games against Arsenal (second in the table), Newcastle (fifth), Liverpool (first), Tottenham (15th) and Nottingham Forest (third). 'I think they're having their worst season in years and they need to find a way out. They need to sign the right players. They're starting with Marmoush, which is a good thing,' said Mido. 'The problem they're facing is that this situation is a new thing for Guardiola. He's used to being always on top, fighting for the title. And now this is a new situation and you can see by his reactions and his attitude with people around him, you could easily see that he's not used to the situation.' Marmoush, and fellow new City signings Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, cannot play against Brugge on Wednesday due to Uefa squad registration rules, but could come back into the fold against Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.
