‘Survivor’ might not be the first word you would associate with Stephan El Shaarawy when perusing stories and photos of his career.
The Italian winger with an Egyptian father and Swiss mother has been a bright young thing and a video game cover boy, while less charitable folk labelled him a one trick pony and too obsessed with his image.
In his early twenties he seemed a spent force, but he survived that destabilising spell. Now 25 years old, he has found the correct approach and right environment. El Shaarawy can still play an important role as Roma aim to overturn a 5-2 deficit against Liverpool in the Champions League semi-final second leg.
Stephan El Shaarawy celebrates after scoring for Roma against Chievo on Saturday afternoon
‘The Pharaoh’, as he is known, has been labelled a one-trick pony too worried about his image
The Pharaoh, as he is known, is son of Sabri, an Egyptian with a degree in psychology from Cairo, who moved to Celle in the region of Savona near Genoa in 1982. He met his future wife Lucia, from Switzerland, and the couple had Stephan and another son Manuel.
Stephan enjoyed billiards and tennis as well as football and joined Genoa’s youth system in 2003, making his Serie A debut in 2008 aged just over 16 years old. He later went on loan to Padova in the second tier and scored 9 goals in all competitions. His skill and fashionable fin hair style were a hit among youngsters.
AC Milan, a club always constantly seeking players with a touch of panache and marketable good looks, swooped in 2011. In the first half of his second season with the Rossoneri, El Sha began grabbing regular headlines, scoring 15 league goals and two in the Champions League before the end of January.
For the second part of the season Mario Balotelli joined and the seven-times European champions boasted a young, charismatic attacking trident comprised of three players with the crest hair-do. As well as El Sha, Mario Balotelli and M’Baye Niang sported the streamline look. They became idols to junior fans.
He struggled earlier in his career, but appears to have found his footing in the Italian capital
El Shaarawy played with Mario Balotelli at AC Milan in a young and charismatic front line
His grooming routine wasn’t plain sailing though. The winger revealed what happened when Gennaro Gattuso first saw him plucking his eyebrows. ‘He told me off and ordered me to only think about playing football. He was great. I miss him.’
Despite the acclaim and hype, El Shaarawy only manged one league goal in the second part of 2012-13. Journalists and ex-players suggested that his routine of cutting in from the left wing and shooting with his right foot had become predictable. Regardless of that slump, the Milan ace was chosen as the cover star of the computer game FIFA 14. His appeal clearly wasn’t damaged by his poor form.
Things took a turn for the worse after that. Serious hamstring and foot injuries reduced his contribution over the next two seasons. By the time he was fit again, Milan had changed radically, and the Pharaoh was no longer part of their plans.
The attacker was desperate to get his career back on track, so took a loan move to Monaco in Ligue 1 in July 2015. He hoped that the calm surroundings and more gentle rhythms of French football would help him rediscover his old magic.
When Liverpool travel to Roma, Mohamed Salah will not be the only Egyptian King on show
El Shaarawy trains at the Trigoria Sports Centre in Rome ahead of the visit of Liverpool
Despite scoring on his debut in a Champions League qualifier against Swiss side Young Boys, El Shaarawy never settled in Monaco.
‘Around October or November I started to feel they didn’t have faith in me anymore. I don’t know if that was from the club or the coach (Leonardo Jardim), but once you get that feeling, it’s hard to perform,’ he said to French magazine So Foot.
When Roma offered an escape route in January 2016 he seized his chance. El Shaarawy’s start to life with the Giallorossi was sensational. The motivated attacker scored four goals in his first five games with the Romans.
That was more than his total in the previous two and a half years. As Mediaset journalist Max Cristina wrote: ‘He chose to return to Italy to one of its most chaotic and pressured football cities, during his most difficult moment in three years. Evidently it was the right place and right time.’
The Italian winger has played in some big games but Wednesday night may be the biggest
He made his international debut for Italy against England back in August 2012 in Switzerland
Since then El Shaarawy, who has won 23 Italy caps (he made his international debut in August 2012 against England), has progressed well. He is still inconsistent and hasn’t made himself indispensable, but is valuable to coach Eusebio Di Francesco.
When Roma beat Chelsea 3-0 on the Champions League group match last October he struck the capital club’s quickest ever goal in UEFA competition, clocking in at 45 seconds after kick-off. A repeat of that would certainly make the second leg against the Reds interesting.
Last season he was team-mates with another thrilling winger with Egyptian blood, who will be his rival on Wednesday night. Speaking about Salah he said: ‘Mohamed has grown exponentially in England. He was already very good here with Roma.
‘He is a good guy, has good values, and takes care of every detail and deserves everything he gets. He is humble and his talent is beyond dispute.’
El Shaarawy scored against Chelsea in this season’s Champions League group stages
The talented winger will now hope to net against Liverpool as Roma look to do the impossible
As for his dad’s heritage, El Sha says: ‘I feel very strong links with Egypt, but I don’t go there very often due to work. But when I have more time I will go.’ He is a Muslim and says ‘I believe religion is above all a question of values and habits, which are connected to my family.’
Those ‘wilderness’ months between August 2014 and July 2015 cost him critical development and learning time. But he is a more mature now and stronger mentally. Those excesses and distractions of his earlier career are history.
El Shaarawy told Max magazine: ‘When you see footballers you think “how can they be so arrogant?” Even I have thought that thousands of times. But then you find yourself in that world surrounded by people asking for autographs and photographs and you begin to feel like a star, even if you don’t want to.’
The biggest match of his club career beckons and he says ‘we’ll have to give a perfect performance and not make any mistakes.’
On Wednesday night, it’s about raising the eyebrows of others with his skill on the turf, not re-shaping his own in the dressing room.