ANYONE born on April Fool's Day will inevitably be the butt of all jokes.

Amr Zaki, too, has had more than his fair share of ridicule when he first arrived at the English Premier League.

It didn't help that Steve Bruce, his manager at Wigan, had hailed the Egyptian's arrival at the JJB Stadium on a season-long loan from Egyptian side El Zamalek as the 'arrival of a Premiership superstar'.

Zaki who? The critics chortled. This is a league that boasts Cristiano Ronaldo, Fernando Torres and Robinho. Where does this little Pharaoh stand?

Eight games into the season, Zaki is smugly standing right at the top of the Premiership scorers' chart with seven goals.

His blistering form has made the big clubs sit up and watch. Chelsea and Liverpool are said to be interested. Wigan are desperate to hang on to his services beyond this season.

Zamalek, knowing they have a prized possession on their hands, are eagerly awaiting a bidding war next June.

No one knows where Zaki will go next season, but for now, the man affectionately nicknamed the 'Bulldozer' by the Egyptian fans appeared happy, settled and contented at the rugby-mad city of Wigan.

This is not a luxury that the 25-year-old from Mansoura can claim to have enjoyed often.

Chequered career

Before Wigan, his career had been chequered at best. He started his professional career at Al Mansoura in Egypt as a 19-year-old before moving to ENPPI for the 2003-04 season.

At ENPPI, he was the top scorer in the league for the 2004-05 season (16 goals) and helped the club win its first trophy, the 2005 Egyptian Cup, as well as being runners-up in the Egyptian Premier League, their best position ever.

After impressing in the 2006 African Nations Cup, where he scored the winner against Senegal in the semi-final, Zaki caught the attention of many clubs including El Zamalek and Al Ahly from Egypt, Al Ain from the UAE, and French side FC Nantes.

After a long transfer wrangle, he finally decided to sign for Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow for a US$2 million ($2.9m) fee.

It was supposed to be a dream move, a breakthrough into European football. Instead, he couldn't settle in Russia and went home without playing a single game to join Zamalek.

His stay at Zamalek was acrimonious at best. He was involved in a series of disputes with the club management, his team-mates and the coaches.

He was even banned for two months after a public spat with assistant coach Ayman Mansour.

The fans soon turned against him, crticising his bulky frame as being overweight. They regard him as a lumbering forward who just doesn't try hard enough.

It was clear Zaki had no future at Zamalek. In June, Wigan manager Bruce was tipped off of his availability and watched him twice in Cairo.

Zaki scored a brace each in those games and Bruce was convinced he had seen a gem.

But Zamalek refused to sell and it was only after 10 weeks' of negotiations, plus the intervention of Egypt national coach Hassan Shehata, that the club agreed to send Zaki on loan to Wigan.

As if making up for lost time, Zaki hit the ground running at Wigan and scored on his debut against West Ham.

He added a double against Hull City, scored against Sunderland and Man City, before notching a memorable brace against Liverpool - his second goal an acrobatic volley right in front of the Kop.

The critics have been silenced. Now, Zaki has the last laugh.

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