Mido joined West Ham United on loan from Coca-Cola Championship club Middlesbrough on 1 February 2010.

The Egypt international striker - full name Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid - has been playing at the top level for more than a decade, having broken into the first team at Egyptian Premier League club Zamalek at the age of 16 in 1999.

A little over a decade later, the Cairo-born striker has collected a Dutch League winners medal with Ajax, lifted the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt, graced the top divisions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and England and earned more than 50 international caps.

After leaving Zamalek for Belgian club KAA Gent in 2000, Mido's form saw him snapped up by Dutch giants Ajax the following year and going on to net 21 goals in 40 league games for the Amsterdam side.

Into 2003 and Mido was loaned to Spanish club Celta de Vigo, where he played eight league matches and lined up alongside new West Ham team-mate Benni McCarthy, before joining French outfit Olympique de Marseille in a deal worth an estimated 12m euro that July.

After a single season at the Stade Velodrome, Mido joined Italian Serie A club AS Roma, before moving to England with Tottenham Hotspur, initially on an 18-month loan, in January 2005.

The goals flowed steadily at White Hart Lane, including a winner in a 1-0 victory over West Ham in October 2000, two months after his move to Spurs had been made permanent.

July 2007 saw the north African move to Middlesbrough, and Mido spent 18 months on Teesside, scoring in a 1-1 draw with West Ham at the Riverside Stadium in November 2008, before being loaned to Wigan Athletic in January 2009.

A further loan spell at first club Zamalek followed in the opening half of the 2009/10 season before the Cairo-born forward opted to move to the Boleyn Ground in January 2010.

Mido's career has seen him win a number of titles and awards, including the Dutch league and cup double in 2001/02, African Young Player of the Year in 2002 and the Africa Cup of Nations in 2006.