The incredible rise of Ayoub El Kaabi: The Casablanca carpenter turned Olympiacos hero
In a way, Ayoub El Kaabi has avenged Lille, and perhaps a large section of French fans who have not forgotten the way Emiliano Martinez behaved in the World Cup final and during the penalty shoot-out against LOSC at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
In the Europa League Conference semi-final against Aston Villa, the Olympiacos striker scored five of his team's six goals, and they now face Fiorentina this Wednesday evening in the final.
Including the Europa League group stage, the Casablanca-born striker has now scored 13 goals in 14 games.
Odd jobs and acrobatics
After arriving in Piraeus last summer, El Kaabi waited until he was 30 to finally get his first taste of European football, having played in Morocco, China, Turkey and Qatar.
It's fair to say the Red and Whites have made an excellent acquisition with the striker having scored 32 goals and provided three assists in all competitions this season, despite leaving to play in the Africa Cup of Nations in January. It's a success story that's proving to be a surprise, except in his own country.
"A lot of Moroccans were expecting it, in the sense that we knew his level, we knew he would do it, but we still didn't know when," explains Sami Nouaim of H24Info. "What he has achieved is extraordinary!"
A semi-finalist at the last World Cup and a major player in African football, Morocco have led the way on the continent with their Mohamed VI academy. However, El Kaabi didn't come through this system. Like Franck Ribery and Mathieu Valbuena, he didn't attend a training centre but forged his reputation through adversity.
"He has made his own name for himself, climbed the ladder and is an excellent example of perseverance for Moroccan youth," continues the journalist, who explains that life has not been easy for the striker, and nothing has been handed to him. Before succeeding in football, he was already working as a teenager.
"He left school at 15 to support his family, who were facing social and financial difficulties. He comes from Derb Milla, a very modest and working-class neighbourhood. He did a succession of odd jobs, sometimes paid under the table.
"He was an apprentice carpenter in a workshop in Casablanca, a supplier of salt to grocers, and a bricklayer. He juggled his work with his passion for football."
Casablanca is a great city of football, home to one of the world's greatest derbies in terms of stakes and fervour, between Wydad and Raja, and it was on the streets there that El Kaabi learned to play and got noticed: "People contacted the family to explain that Ayoub had an innate talent. He first joined a local club, CH Khadija. He started at a very low level, in the regional league, on clay courts."
After a spell at Ettifaq Lalla Meryem, he joined Racing Casablanca, one of the country's oldest clubs, at the age of 19. Usually, players start up front and then work backwards, but he did the opposite.
"He played left-back in the reserve team," says Nouaim. "But he scored so many goals that Abdelhak Mendoza, the club's former coach and president who changed his career, moved him up to centre-forward."
For the journalist, who is an expert on Casablanca football, "it was really special to see Ayoub play".
Precise and skilful, the striker is also building a solid reputation for his spectacular style: "He loves volleying and he is the Moroccan player who has scored the most goals with overhead kicks in all competitions."
Sublime statistics
With 25 goals in 33 matches, he played an active role in Racing's rise to the Botola in 2017. He then signed for Berkane, who were in the midst of a rapid ascent. In 29 matches in all competitions, he found the net 16 times. In the African Confederation Cup, the equivalent of the Europa League, his statistics speak for themselves: four goals and an assist in six matches.
As a reward, he was called up by his nation for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) at the age of 24. Morocco won it and El Kaabi scored nine times in six matches.
El Kaabi then set his sights on Europe, but the path he had mapped out took an unexpected turn. At that time, a new player arrived on the footballing scene with huge resources and as many ambitions: China.
"Hebei offered a contract that was impossible to refuse: we're talking about €6m per season," says Nouaim. There, the Moroccan rubbed shoulders with two Argentinian icons, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Javier Mascherano. His club came sixth in the league, their best-ever finish.
In 2019, he was loaned out to Wydad and in 2020/2021, he scored 26 times and provided four assists in 43 matches. Captain of the national team, he once again won the CHAN with three goals and an assist.
He then moved to Hatayspor in Turkey, where his success continued: 18 goals and two assists in 32 matches in his debut Super Lig season.
He became a Morocco regular but missed out on the historic World Cup at the end of 2022. After half a season (eight goals and two assists in 21 games), he joined Al-Sadd at the beginning of March and continued to perform at a high level, getting six goals and an assist in all competitions.
And then, at the end of the journey, the Moroccan landed in the great Greek port in the middle of the summer. Ten months on, El Kaabi is on the cusp of the biggest milestone of his career. Already the fourth top scorer in the short history of the Europa League Conference with 10 goals in just eight matches, he will be Olympiacos' biggest asset as they challenge Fiorentina in an effort to win the Piraeus club's first-ever European trophy, and at rivals AEK's home ground.
More than an achievement, this could be the start of a new career.
