“Zaki’s contract has been terminated in a friendly way. We had to do it so that we can be able to bring in another non-local player,” Al-Salmiya official Ahmed Al-Otaibi told Alrai newspaper.

“He is a decent player and person but he didn’t get the chance to impress with Al-Salmiya, and this is normal in football. There has been no problems between us at all.”

Zaki, 30, is strongly poised to return to old club Zamalek for a fourth stint, having spent several loan spells from the Cairo club in recent years.

The former Wigan striker managed to regain his place in Egypt’s squad recently, scoring in his last three appearances for the Pharaohs.

He has been linked with Ismaili but stressed that he will only play for Zamalek in Egypt.