Ayoub El Kaabi

Ayoub El Kaabi (أيوب الكعبي; born 25 June 1993) is a Moroccan professional footballer who plays as a striker for Super League Greece club Olympiacos and the Morocco national team. He started his professional career playing for Racing de Casablanca.

A full international for Morocco since 2018, El Kaabi represented the nation at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, one Africa Cup of Nations tournament and two African Nations Championship tournaments. He was the top goalscorer of the 2018 African Nations Championship, with a record nine goals.

Early life
Ayoub El Kaabi was born and raised in the disadvantaged neighborhood of Derb Milla in Casablanca. His family is from Zagora in southern Morocco, but moved to the region of Mediouna near Casablanca. The El Kaabi family went through difficult times in the 1990s. As a result, El Kaabi left school at the age of 15 and worked at a shop in the Mediouna district as an apprentice carpenter. As he explained in an interview with the Moroccan press: "I was born into a modest family. To support myself, I had to learn a trade. That's how I got into carpentry."

Like nearly all young people in the city, El Kaabi was interested in football from a young age and he played football with his neighborhood friends. Realizing his unique talent, his entourage advised him to join a club in the Hay Khadija district. After only a few months, he came to the attention of the scouts of Racing de Casablanca who were impressed with his technical ability and physical presence. El Kaabi gave up carpentry to devote himself to football and signed his first professional contract at the age of 21 with Racing Club in 2014.

RAC
El Kaabi was loaned to a club in the Third National Division where he gained experience by making a large number of appearances. His professional career began with Racing Athlétique Club. Initially a left-back due to his speed and stamina, the club switched him to defensive midfielder, and then to forward after the coach saw his great finishing ability. He was credited with helping Racing Club gain promotion to the First National Division.

RS Berkane
El Kaabi joined RS Berkane on transfer from Racing during summer 2017 as top scorer in the Botola 2 during the 2016–17 season with 25 goals. El Kaabi won the 2018 Moroccan Throne Cup when Berkane defeated Wydad de Fès in the final on penalties.

Hebei China Fortune
In 2018, El Kaabi was purchased by Hebei China Fortune for a transfer fee of €6.5 million.

On 2 August, El Kaabi scored his first goal for the club against Beijing Guoan.

Wydad
In July 2019, El Kaabi joined Wydad AC on a six-month loan.

In September 2020, he returned to Wydad AC as a free agent. He took part in the qualifying stages of the 2019–20 CAF Champions League before signing to the Turkish side Hatayspor. During the competition El Kaabi managed to score a hat-trick against Atlético Petróleos de Luanda marking his final match for Wydad. He finished as the top scorer of the Botola in the 2020–21 season with 18 goals.

Hatayspor
In 2021, El Kaabi signed a two-year contract until June 2023 with Hatayspor, after having made the heyday of Wydad in Casablanca.

On 23 August 2021, El Kabbi made his debut for the team, after being substituted in 76th minute for Mame Diouf against Galatasaray, the game ended in a 2–1 loss. On 28 August he scored his first goal with the team after a 5–0 victory against Alanyaspor. On 27 February 2022, El Kaabi scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 5–2 win against Yeni Malatyaspor. Due to the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, the club withdrew from the league after the club's quarters in Antakya collapsed. This forced El Kaabi to search for another club.

Al Sadd
On 1 March 2023, Qatari club Al Sadd SC reached an agreement with El Kaabi to join the club until the end of the current season. On 3 March, he came on in the 81st minute in place of Akram Afif and played his first match against Al-Sailiya SC. On 7 March 2023, El Kaabi scored his first goal in his second appearance for the club. In the league, he received his first start on 17 March against Al-Shamal SC.

El Kaabi ends the season as third in the championship and finalist in the Qatar Cup played on 6 April 2023 against Al-Duhail SC in Doha.

Olympiacos
On 6 August 2023, it was announced that El Kaabi would join Greek side Olympiacos. El Kaabi made his debut four days later against K.R.C. Genk in the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round. He managed to score a brace in his fourth appearance for the team in a 3–1 victory against FK Čukarički. On 21 September 2023, EL Kaabi scored a brace against SC Freiburg in the Europa League group stage. Six days later, El Kaabi went on to score another brace against Aris Thessaloniki. In the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League, El Kaabi scored a goal in the first and second leg of the knockout round play-offs, thus qualifying them for the round of 16. In the round of 16, Olympiacos faced Maccabi Tel Aviv, with El Kaabi scoring a goal in the first leg and a brace in the second, again qualifying them for the final 8.

On 2 May, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 away win over Aston Villa in the Conference League semi-final first leg, the first ever hat-trick at the semifinal phase of Conference League. A week later, on 9 May, he scored a brace in a 2–0 victory against Aston Villa in the second leg, sending his club to the Conference League final, the first European final in their history. He scored the only goal of the final in extra time as Olympiacos defeated Fiorentina 1–0 to become the first Greek side to win a major European trophy. El Kaabi scored a total of 11 goals at the knockout phase, more than any other player during any single UEFA club competition, while the total of 14 goals during the group stage and knockout phases is a record for an African player.

International career
El Kaabi made his international debut for the Morocco national team on 13 January 2018 in a 2018 Africa Nations Championship group stage match against Mauritania, scoring two goals. The footballer was named Man of The Match on 31 January after Morocco's match against Libya during CHAN's semi-final match. Morocco won the game 3-1. Morocco was set to face Nigeria in the finals. On 4 February 2018, Morocco defeated Nigeria 4–0, El Kaabi scored a goal in the 73rd minute of the match. The Confederation of African Football (CAF) chose El Kaabi as the best player of the tournament, and he was top scorer with 9 goals in 5 matches.

El Kaabi scored his first international hat trick for the local national team on 17 January 2018 against Guinea.

In May 2018, he was named in Morocco's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. He played only 2 matches out of the 3 in the World Cup, played the first match as the starting 11 against Iran and coming on the 69th minute as substitute for Khalid Boutaib against Portugal.

EL Kaabi represented Morocco in the 2020 African Nations Championship, scoring a total of three goals which helped his country to achieve the title and becoming the first and only country to win the Championship back to back. His most appreciated goal is the goal he scored in the final against Mali in the 79th minute that guaranteed them the win.

After his performances with the Moroccan A' for two years achieving two African titles, the coach of the main Morocco national team, Vahid Halilhodžić, was impressed and decided to call him up to represent Morocco in 2022 World Cup qualifiers. In his first six matches with the team, he managed to score five goals.

On 28 December 2023, he was named in the 27-man squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

On 11 June 2024, El Kaabi scored his first hat-trick for the national team in a 6-0 victory against Congo.

Playing style
A competition ambassador at the 2018 African Nations Championship, Adel Chedli, described El Kaabi as reminiscent of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto'o and Florent Malouda.

Personal life
El Kaabi married his wife, Meriem, in a traditional ceremony in Casablanca on 26 November 2018. The wedding was attended by family, friends, and notable figures from the football community.

On 9 September 2023, El Kaabi along with his national teammates donated blood to those injured in the 2023 Marrakesh-Safi earthquake.

International



 * Scores and results list Morocco score listed first, score column indicates score after each El Kaabi goal.

Honours
RS Berkane
 * Moroccan Throne Cup: 2018

Wydad AC
 * Botola: 2020–21

Olympiacos
 * UEFA Europa Conference League: 2023–24

Morocco
 * African Nations Championship: 2018, 2020

Individual
 * Botola 2 Top scorer: 2016–17
 * Moroccan Throne Cup Top scorer: 2017–18, 2019–20
 * RS Berkane Player of the Season: 2018
 * African Nations Championship Best Player: 2018
 * African Nations Championship Top scorer: 2018
 * African Nations Championship Team of the Tournament: 2018, 2020
 * Botola Top scorer: 2020–21
 * Botola Forward of the Season: 2020–21
 * Botola Team of the Season: 2020–21
 * Wydad AC Player of the Season: 2020–21
 * Süper Lig Team of the Season: 2021–22
 * Super League Greece Player of the Month: September 2023
 * Super League Greece Player of the Season: 2023–24
 * UEFA Europa Conference League Player of the Season: 2023–24
 * UEFA Europa Conference League Top scorer: 2023–24
 * UEFA Europa Conference League Team of the Season: 2023–24
 * Olympiacos Player of the Season: 2023–24

Record

 * Morocco A' All-time Top scorer
 * Top scorer in a single CHAN edition.
 * Current Top scorer of CHAN.
 * First Player To Hit Double Digits In CHAN History.
 * First African player with the most goals scored in a single Season in European competitions (16 goals).
 * First Player to score in a European final for a Greek club Olympiacos.
 * The Player with the most goals in a Season in European competitions in the history of Olympiacos.
 * The player with the most goals scored in a Europa Conference League knockout campaign (11 goals).
 * The player with the most goals scored in a season in the knockout stage of any single UEFA club competition (11 goals).