When Amr Zaki burst onto the Premier League scene with Steve Bruce’s Wigan he set the Premier League alight earning the respect of fans and professionals alike. How things can change in football. In his first few moths the Egyptian striker bagged 10 goals. He scored his first brace for Wigan in a 5–0 victory over Hull City and when scored his fourth goal in as many games in the Premier League his stock was at an all time high.

At one point he was the third top scorer in the Premier League.

With pace, power, great technical ability and a burning desire to win, Zaki looked like the bargain of the season as Wigan looked every ounce a Premier League outfit.

Steve Bruce must have been rubbing his hands with glee thinking about another diamond uncovered. With players like Wilson Palacios and Antonio Valencia already in the side, things were looking up.

Even then however there were signs of cracks in the new hero’s character. He was a firebrand and often wound himself up or the opposing team player to Wigan’s detriment. He had already been fined once before the fairytale blew up in his face.

In April 2009, Zaki failed to return home to Wigan from an Egypt World Cup qualifier much to the anger of Bruce who labeled him as the most unprofessional player he had ever worked with.

Bruce publicly branded Zaki as, “highly unprofessional” and fined him the maximum amount permitted at the time. Since then the player has returned to Zamalek and Portsmouth have been showing a keen interest in him.

Now the player has sunk to new levels of lowness with his comments about Portsmouth and their employment policies. A potential move from Zamalek to Portsmouth has been blown out of the water after the player himself was quoted as saying;

“ not as long as Pompey continue to employ Israelis and an Algerian.”

“I refused their offer before, but now joining Portsmouth is no longer an option for me,” Zaki said on his official website.

“After Portsmouth signed an Israeli player and also hired an Israeli football director a possible move was ruled out. On top of that, no way could I play at Portsmouth with an Algerian within in their ranks.”

The player was referring to Ex-coach Avram Grant and fellow Israeli Tal Ben Haim and Algerian wingback Nadir Belhadj.

Now footballers should be and are free to talk about whatever they like. Phil Neville’s recent comments about Manchester City are just bits of banter after all.

Even Eric Cantona’s latest comments about smacking Thierry Henry seem pale in comparison. The controversial Frenchman said that he would have hit Henry for trying to console him had he been Irish.

Having a bit of banter with a local rival is one thing and wanting to smack a Frenchman is seems pretty reasonable too, but starting a war against Israel and Algeria is going a little too far don’t you think Mr Zaki?

Zaki’s racist slurs are sure to do wonders for Egypt-Algeria relations, not to mention offending millions of Israelis around the world.

It’s just as well he is no longer in England as these startling admissions might have made his nights out around Manchester a little painful to say the least. Footballers are role models and in this instance his despicable comments are certain to spread to youths across Egypt.

Quite simply, there is no place in football for racism in football and idiots like Zaki should be banned from European Football by UEFA at the very least or the Kick Racism Out campaign will seem as big a sham as Joleen Lescott recently mentioned..