Fri 8 Sep 2006
Mido is fired up and looking to fire after losing 22lbs in the off-season.
Mido said: ‘It was important for me to lose weight. I knew that and I went home and worked on it.
‘Now it’s my job to keep fit because unfortunately at the end of last season I got injured and didn’t play the last five or six games.
‘I gained weight because that is my body - if I don’t train, I gain weight even if I eat normally. So now I am happy that I’m fit. I worked hard for it and now I have to stay fit until the end of the season.
‘I have lost about 10 kilos, three off my hair! I am now talking to a Brazilian who is one of the best physical trainers.
‘His job will be to help the medical staff here keep me fit all the season. He was working with the Brazilian, Maxwell, one of my friends, who was playing with Ajax when I was with Inter Milan.
‘Maxwell had a big injury and he helped him a lot to get fit again. The most important thing is that he has the experience to keep me fit all the time.
‘I asked Spurs’ permission if they would allow me to have a special trainer who can help me to keep fit all the season. I will pay for him myself. Last season he was in Monaco for five or six months working with Maxwell so I hope it will be easy for him to come to England.
‘I don’t have an agreement with him yet but I am hopeful we can work out a programme. It won’t affect my physical power. I did not want to lose any muscle I was just working on losing the things that my body does not need.’
The talented front man also revealed that he had agreed to return to Spurs over six weeks ago, but had to wait for the two clubs to finalise everything regarding the deal.
He said: ‘I had an agreement to come back to Spurs more than six weeks ago.
‘I really appreciate what Spurs did to get me back because Roma wanted to ask a lot of money for me.
‘I had some offers from clubs in England but I never changed my mind. I gave my word to chairman Daniel Levy and we worked on it until I came here.
‘I spoke to the board when I went back to Italy and they told me they needed time to negotiate with Roma to get the best deal.’
When asked about the new signings at the club and how he thought his season would go Mido added: ‘Last season was easier to play because it was clear Martin was playing most of the time with a big man and a small man.
‘This season we are playing European football so maybe we will play more than 50 games and I think if I can play 35-40 games and score 20 goals it will be a successful season for me.
‘If you look at all the big clubs and the clubs playing in Europe they have at least four good strikers and that is what we have here. It keeps you on your toes, as you say in England.
‘What’s good about the strikers we have here is that each one is totally different. Jermain is totally different from Robbie, and Robbie is totally different from Dimitar.
‘Dimitar and I are both target men but he is a totally different player from me so of course we can play together. I played, for example, with Didier Drogba at Marseille and we were one of the best attacks. We played very well, we scored goals, I assisted with goals and he did as well.’