Mido was no stranger to controversy during his playing days, but the former Egypt striker is now working hard to unearth and hone the next generation of talent in his North African homeland.

While Mohamed Salah is one of the Premier League's top stars at Liverpool and Pharaohs team-mate Omar Marmoush joined Manchester City in January, the former Tottenham man feels that his nation is not fulfilling its potential.

"If you compare the number of Egyptian players who play in Europe to any of the other top African countries in football, the gap is massive," Mido, 42, told World Football on the BBC World Service.

"Having only four or five players around Europe is not enough for Egypt.

"We are a country with 120 million people, and we are physically strong; we have a great history. We have enough talent."

Mido is using the lessons learned from his own career to help develop youngsters at his academy, called The Maker, in Cairo.

A nomadic figure, he had spells at 11 different clubs in seven countries over the course of 14 years as a player before retiring aged 30 in 2013.

He also endured disputes with coaches, including at Ajax under Ronald Koeman and with Egypt, first with Marco Tardelli and then also when Hassan Shehata subsequently served in the national team dugout.

"I'm never ashamed of pointing at myself as an example," Mido added.

"I always say to them: 'OK, I played in big clubs, but I could have done better'.

"I don't regret anything because this is my character, and I know if everything happened again, I will still [make] the same mistakes.

"But the difficulties I had [is] that sometimes I gave up easily, and sometimes the easiest decision for me was to go to another club.

"I always tell these kinds of things to the boys - that it's very important if you want to make it to the top to have the right mindset."

'We're all here to dream'

Mido has around 100 boys at The Maker and is aiming to expand the project to include girls.

He says working on mental strength and adaptability is crucial to give his intake the best chance of succeeding in Europe.

"We have a top psychology team who are working with the kids daily," he explained.

"Most of our boys speak very good English. As Egyptians, some of us had difficulties because of not speaking any foreign language, which doesn't help to adapt and communicate with your new teammates.

"Being able to deal with different cultures is very important.

"If you have the right mindset, [are] physically strong, speak different languages, have tactical awareness, and of course, the skills, you make it into Europe."

Mido began his playing career with Zamalek and later returned for two further stints with the Cairo giants.

Egyptian clubs have dominated the African Champions League over recent years, winning five of the past six titles, yet Mido's ultimate goal is for his young players at The Maker to establish themselves in Europe.

"Our main target is to get at least four or five players into Europe," he said.

"And we are dreaming that in 10 years we will have 60-70 players graduated from this training program playing around Europe.

"And we will be following them, monitoring them, and we will have people around them to keep working on developing them, even if they are playing in Europe.

"For me, this is a brilliant feeling, that you're helping young kids to develop and to work on their dream.

"The beautiful thing about coming here is seeing the boys' eyes are bright, full of hope. We're all here to dream."