Ayoub El Kaabi
Ayoub El Kaabi (Arabic: أيوب الكعبي; born 25 June 1993) is a Moroccan professional footballer who plays as a forward for Super League Greece club Olympiacos and the Morocco national team. He started his professional career playing for Racing de Casablanca.
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El Kaabi with Morocco in 2023 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 25 June 1993 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Casablanca, Morocco | |||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Forward, winger | |||||||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | Olympiacos | |||||||||||||||||||
| Number | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2016–2017 | RAC | 33 | (25) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2017–2018 | RS Berkane | 24 | (12) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2020 | Hebei | 28 | (9) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2019 | → Wydad (loan) | 9 | (4) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | Wydad | 29 | (18) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2023 | Hatayspor | 53 | (26) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | Al Sadd | 7 | (2) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2023– | Olympiacos | 25 | (17) | |||||||||||||||||
| International career‡ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 2016–2017 | Morocco U23 | 4 | (0) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2021 | Morocco A' | 15 | (14) | |||||||||||||||||
| 2018– | Morocco | 33 | (10) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 20:50, 7 April 2024 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 27 March 2024 (UTC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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.
El Kaabi was the top goalscorer of the 2018 African Nations Championship, taking place on home soil, with nine goals. This made him the first player to reach that tally in a single competition, having surpassed the previous record set by Zambia's Given Singuluma of five goals in 2009. After netting a brace in the semi-final against Libya, Morocco made it to the final of the competition for the first time in history, where they won their first title after a big 4–0 win against Nigeria.