World Cup: Who is Ayyoub Bouaddi, the French teenager playing for Morocco?
A promising midfielder marked for the French team, Bouaddi is a breakout sensation on his World Cup debut with Morocco. Until last month, France-based teen
A promising midfielder marked for the French team, Bouaddi is a breakout sensation on his World Cup debut with Morocco. Until last month, France-based teen footballer Ayyoub Bouaddi probably thought he would experience this year’s FIFA World Cup the way most 18-year-olds do – watching it on a TV, surrounded by friends and family, and most likely backing Les Bleus, one of the pre-tournament favourites and the team he would join in the future. Having risen through the French youth ranks, Bouaddi was tied to the French national team programme and marked as a future talent. But Bouaddi was no ordinary 18-year-old. He had recently become the youngest player to record 50 appearances in France’s top tier of club football – Ligue 1. Despite his prodigious talent, France manager Didier Deschamps wanted the curly-haired teenager to continue in the country’s youth ranks, where he captained France’s Under-21 team as recently as March. Morocco saw an opportunity and pounced. Deschamps’s reluctance to call Bouaddi up to national duty for the World Cup is now a matter of grave controversy in France. Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco midfielder Jerome Rothen expressed his dismay while analysing Morocco’s opening World Cup game against Brazil in New Jersey. Bouaddi stood out for his mental and physical strength amid a cacophony of noise, the five-time world champions and their tens of thousands of fans in the cauldron that was the New York New Jersey Stadium. “When I hear the words of coach Didier Deschamps, it shocks me,” Rothen said on French sports broadcaster RMC Sport. “With Bouaddi, we didn’t have to wait to see what he did against Brazil to realise that he’s a young player who was ahead of his time,” he said in praise of the midfielder.
Prodigious talent Being ahead of his time has been a theme throughout Bouaddi’s career. On the eve of his 17th birthday, in 2024, the rising star helped Lille secure a famous Champions League victory over Real Madrid. On that special October night in northern France, Bouaddi faced a midfield comprising French internationals Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni. Following the Brazil match on Saturday, football experts heaped praise on Bouaddi’s ability to soak up pressure and stand out as Morocco’s midfield maestro. Despite his young age, pressure was not a problem for a boy raised to handle it from a young age – thanks to his exposure to top-flight football and, also, his father. Hassan Bouaddi, a former handball player, pursued a post-sporting career as a banking director while also serving as deputy mayor for Creil – a town about 50km north of Paris. The older Bouaddi took a keen interest in ensuring athletic infrastructure was available to the city’s youth. The same sport-loving mentality was enshrined in Ayyoub, who was playing for the local football club AFC Creil at the age of five but with a heavy emphasis on education. The midfielder sat for the French Baccalaureate as a 16-year-old – a year early – and is currently pursuing a degree in mathematics. Bouaddi’s versatility can be seen on the pitch as well. Typically, holding midfielders are known for their defensive abilities – shielding the defence from the opposition’s attacks by cutting out passing lanes – but this young talent’s repertoire includes the ability to start an attack, too. In the match against favoured Brazil, he completed 91 percent of his passes, including all 16 of his passes in the attacking third of the pitch.
The BriefWire