Aston Villa Bid £11m For Amr Zaki, According To The Player

Egyptian hotshot Amr Zaki, who began life in the Premier League with a bang but cooled off midseason as winter approached, has revealed that he was the subject of an £11 million transfer attempt from Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa outfit.

His agent, Nader Shawqi, added that a bid also came in from one of the three recently promoted sides, yet did not disclose whether it was Birmingham City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, or Burnley.

“Aston Villa offered £11 million to sign me in the first half of the season," Zaki explained in the Birmingham Mail. "However, Wigan refused to get compensation as they had hopes to sign me and let me join another club later in order to make money.

“They did the same with [Wilson] Palacios, buying him for £1 million and selling him to Spurs for £14 million.

“Wigan is not one of the top four. All they want is to buy players for cheap and then make money by selling them to other clubs later. They would never pay ridiculous amounts of cash on me.’’

Zaki, though, added that it was his desire to remain an England-based footballer, stressing, “I wish to stay in the Premier League."

Agent Shawqi confirmed that there is competition for his client's signature, saying, “About the future, I can’t name any clubs for the time being but I can confirm that two French clubs offered to sign Zaki. We have an offer from one of the promoted clubs in the Premier League too."

Alan Dawson, Goal.com