After he had left Zamalek for MCDR on a free transfer, the Whites were keen to retrieve the services of Egypt international Saied upon the request of manager Hassan Shehata.

They reached an agreement with their Cairo neighbors over a swap-loan deal sending midfielder Ashour Al-Adham to the other direction.

However, the deal fell through as Al-Adham rejected the move to MCDR and opted to join Gouna.

Ironically, Zamalek decided to sign defender Hani Saied from Masri to become their fourth summer recruit.

“We finalized the deal with Masri and Hani should sign later on Tuesday,” Zamalek chairman Galal Ibrahim, who backtracked on stepping down.

“We reached an agreement to sign him for EGP 3.1million.”

Saied almost joined Zamalek from Harras Hodoud two seasons ago but opted to move to Port-Said instead.

Zamalek have already signed Ahmed Hassan, Hussein Hamdi and Ghanaian defender Karimu Alhassan so far this summer.