WHY AYOUB EL KAABI IS OFFICIALLY MOROCCO’S MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON THIS YEAR
Ayoub El Kaabi’s stunning overhead kicks led Morocco to the AFCON last-16. Discover the carpenter-turned-star’s incredible rise.
With captain Achraf Hakimi barely featuring in the Africa Cup of Nations group stage while he recovers from injury, Ayoub El Kaabi has stolen the spotlight for the host nation.
Hakimi, crowned Africa’s best footballer, has only made a late cameo so far. Meanwhile, El Kaabi came off the bench and lit up the opening match against Comoros, sealing Morocco’s 2-0 win with a jaw-dropping overhead kick.
That goal changed everything for him. At 32, El Kaabi got the nod to start the next game—a 1-1 draw with Mali. He couldn’t find the net in that one, and the Moroccan team looked frustrated, weighed down by all the hype. But then Monday rolled around, and El Kaabi went right back to work, scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Zambia. Morocco topped Group A and booked a last-16 showdown with Tanzania in Rabat.
He opened the scoring with a header, then finished things off with—what else—another overhead kick.
Back home, fans went wild. Here’s a player who first broke into the national team before the 2018 World Cup but was never really a fixture in the starting eleven. Now, he’s a national hero.
You can’t escape the viral videos. Clips of fans imitating El Kaabi’s bicycle kick in the most unlikely places have exploded online. There was even a drone light show over Casablanca, recreating his acrobatic goal in the night sky. Someone put together a video montage of all his overhead kicks, and it racked up millions of views. Honestly, this move is his trademark. Back in the 2020/21 season with Wydad Casablanca, he scored four of them, and he’s pulled it off a few times for Morocco, including a stunning one against Benin last June.
But El Kaabi isn’t one to brag. After the Zambia match, he shrugged off the praise, saying, “The most important thing is to score. It doesn’t really matter who scores or how they do it.”
His story starts far from the spotlight, in the streets of Casablanca. He grew up in a tough neighbourhood, working as a carpenter to help his family get by. “I grew up in a shanty town in Derb Mila, a neighbourhood that everybody knows,” he told UEFA.com in 2024. Money was tight, so he’d go to school, then work construction jobs with his dad in the summers. “The work I did at that time made me a man,” he said. He still speaks fondly of carpentry: “It is a really great job that embraces art and creativity.”
El Kaabi didn’t sign his first pro contract until he was 21, with Racing Casablanca. After one standout season in Morocco’s second division, he moved up to Renaissance Berkane in the top flight, then had a spell in China. He came back to play for Wydad, then headed to Turkey, where he hit his stride with Hatayspor—until a devastating earthquake in early 2023 forced him to move on.
A short stay in Qatar followed, but the real turning point came when he joined Olympiacos in Greece. In just over two years, he’s scored 75 goals for them, including the winner in the UEFA Conference League final against Fiorentina in May 2024—a stooping header, not a bicycle kick for once.
El Kaabi first made his mark for Morocco by finishing as top scorer as they won the 2018 African Nations Championship, a tournament just for home-based players. He played at the World Cup in Russia that year, then captained Morocco to another African Nations Championship win in 2021.
He’s played at the Cup of Nations in both 2022 and 2024, but until now, he’d never scored at the tournament. Now, with Soufiane Rahimi and Youssef En-Nesyri behind him in the pecking order, he’s Morocco’s main man up front. On Sunday in Rabat, he’ll try to keep the story going with a win against heavy underdogs Tanzania.
HISTORIC FATHER-SON PAIRING LOOMS AS AL NASSR WEIGHS HISTORIC TEAM ROSTER CHANGES NOW
Al Nassr is weighing a historic move to promote Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. to the senior team. Will the father-son duo play together in 2026?
Al Nassr, one of Saudi Arabia’s top football clubs, might be planning something extraordinary: promoting Cristiano Ronaldo's son to the senior team next season. If they pull it off, we could see the father and son playing together, which would honestly be a pretty wild moment for football fans.
Ronaldo Jr. is only 15, but he’s already making waves in Al Nassr’s youth teams. He’s spent time with elite academies around the globe, following his dad’s footsteps from Real Madrid to Juventus to Manchester United and now to Saudi Arabia. Clearly, the club sees something special in him. A promotion at this age would show they trust his abilities and think he’s not just physically ready but technically sharp enough to handle the big stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo himself is still the main man at Al Nassr, even at 41, and you can tell he’d love nothing more than to share the field with his son. It’s been a dream of his for years. The club wants to see how Ronaldo Jr. finishes the season before officially making a decision, but the buzz is real.
If Ronaldo Jr. gets his shot, imagine the story: assisting his dad, who’s chasing that impossible 1,000-goal mark. That’s the kind of fairy tale moment people remember forever.
The hype isn’t just talk, either. The numbers back it up. Ronaldo Jr. scored 58 goals in just 23 games with Juventus’ U-9 team, and he’s kept his scoring streak alive in Saudi Arabia, notching 56 goals in 27 matches for Al Nassr’s U-15s. The kid clearly inherited his father’s scoring instinct.
Moving up to the senior squad would be a huge jump, though. The Saudi Pro League is tough, both physically and competitively. He’d have to be ready.
Speaking of milestones, Ronaldo himself keeps stacking them up. He just scored his 969th career goal, leading Al Nassr to a 4-0 win over Al Wasl in the AFC Champions League Two quarterfinals. The team looked in control from the start, dominating every part of the match, and Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 11th minute. That 1,000-goal milestone is getting closer, and maybe just maybe his son will be there on the pitch to help him get there.
ELITE CLUBS INITIATE EMERGENCY TALKS TO SIGN THE HOTTEST MIDFIELD PROSPECT KEES SMIT IN EUROPE
AZ Alkmaar’s Kees Smit is the hottest prospect in Europe. Discover the £70m race between Real Madrid, Barcelona, and the Premier League.
Real Madrid’s strategy for finding talent often involves spotting promising players early on, and Kees Smit is starting to catch serious attention.
This midfielder from AZ Alkmaar has been making waves in the Netherlands, and now his progress is drawing interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Real Madrid.
Rafael van der Vaart, who knows firsthand what it takes to make it at the Bernabeu, seems confident about Smit’s potential.
When Van der Vaart spoke on Ziggo Sport’s Rondo (via Mundo Deportivo), he didn’t hold back about the young player’s future.
“He’s truly a remarkable player.
We tend to throw around the word 'good' a lot, but with him, it’s genuine.
If he keeps developing at this pace, there’s little doubt he’ll land at Real Madrid or another top club, Real Madrid being the prime example in my mind.”
Still, Van der Vaart also stressed that talent alone won’t carry Smit all the way.
Handling the mental pressure will be just as crucial as his skills on the pitch. He elaborated,
“He needs to learn how to deal with everything that comes with this kind of spotlight, but from what I see, he remains quite grounded.
He doesn’t seem fazed by pressure, at least not visibly. Plus, he handles interviews well and comes across as quite composed.”
As for Real Madrid’s stance, Smit is definitely on their radar. The club sees him as one of Europe’s more promising midfielders, and they’re keeping a close eye on his development.
That said, he’s not considered an urgent target this summer, with other positions taking priority. This situation could open the door to competition from others.
Meanwhile, several Premier League clubs are tracking his progress, and Barcelona reportedly have shown interest too.
As interest mounts, so does the expected price. Any transfer is rumoured to require a hefty sum, with figures reportedly topping €50 million.
For now, Smit’s focus remains on growing at AZ Alkmaar. But if his upward trend continues, it’s likely only a matter of time before a major European club makes their move.
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