Back in 2011, AC Milan made a swoop on the then 18-year-old player, banking on his footballing flair and straight off the bat, El Shaarawy tallied up 15 league goals and two in the Champions League.
Mario Balotelli joined the club in the latter half of the season, and with M'Baye Niang and El Sha, the trio made up a young, exciting attacking front, becoming hugely influential to younger fans.
However, the excitement surrounding El Sha quickly turned to criticism, with some journalists arguing that his style of attack had become too predictable. The negative press did little to damage his appeal though as he was selected to star on the cover of FIFA 14.
El Shaarawy hit a major bump in the road after that point, suffering various hamstring and foot injuries that hampered his following two seasons. When he was ready to return, Milan had adopted a game strategy that had little room for the forward.
The 25-year-old opted to join Monaco in July 2015 on a loan spell, in a bid to further develop his talent, but the attacker struggled to adapt to life in Monaco.
He told French magazine 'So Foot': ''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.''
Roma came to El Sha's rescue in 2016, and in the opening stages of his first season, he flourished, scoring four goals in his first five games in the Italian capital.
'Mediaset' journalist Max Cristina commented: ''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.''
Ahead of Roma's Champions League clash with Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool squad, spearheaded by former team-mate Mohamed Salah, El Sha said: ''We'll have to give a perfect performance and not make any mistakes.''