Bicycle kick king El Kaabi is new AFCON hero for hosts Morocco / Photo: Gabriel BOUYS - AFP/File
Bicycle kick king El Kaabi is new AFCON hero for hosts Morocco
With captain Achraf Hakimi hardly featuring during the Africa Cup of Nations group stage as he recovers from injury, Ayoub El Kaabi has emerged as the hero of the tournament so far for the host country.
While Hakimi, the African footballer of the year, has made just one substitute appearance up to now, El Kaabi came off the bench to seal Morocco's 2-0 win over Comoros in the opening game with a stunning overhead kick.
That moment of magic earned the 32-year-old a place in the starting line-up for the next match, a 1-1 draw with Mali.
While El Kaabi failed to repeat his goalscoring heroics on what was a more frustrating occasion for a much-hyped Moroccan team, he was back at it in Monday's 3-0 victory against Zambia which allowed the Atlas Lions to wrap up first place in Group A and a last-16 tie against Tanzania.
The Olympiacos hitman headed in the opening goal and later wrapped up the win with another overhead kick.
Cue adulation in the kingdom for a player who first broke into the national team ahead of the 2018 World Cup but has never really been an established starter.
- Viral videos -
Videos posted online of fans repeating El Kaabi's bicycle kick move in unlikely situations have become viral, registering millions of views.
Meanwhile, a light show in the sky over Casablanca used drones to recreate El Kaabi scoring in acrobatic fashion.
Another widely viewed online video is a compilation of all the goals scored by El Kaabi in that way, because the overhead kick has long been his speciality.
He scored four such goals during a breakthrough 2020/21 season with Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca and had already pulled off the feat a couple of times for his country before the AFCON, including in stunning fashion against Benin last June.
"The most important thing is to score. It doesn't really matter who scores or how they do it," El Kaabi humbly said after the Zambia game.
- From carpenter to goalscorer -
El Kaabi's story begins in the streets of Casablanca, where he started playing football in an impoverished neighbourhood and worked as a carpenter.
"I grew up in a shanty town in Derb Mila, a neighbourhood that everybody knows," the striker said in an interview with UEFA.com in 2024.
"We were in a bit of a difficult financial situation. I was able to go to school and study, and in the summer I worked in order to help my family.
"I helped my Dad who worked in construction. The work I did at that time made me a man."
Of working as a carpenter, he added: "It is a really great job which embraces art and creativity."
El Kaabi eventually signed his first professional contract with Racing Casablanca in 2014, at the age of 21.
After one impressive season in the Moroccan second division, he moved to the top flight with Renaissance Berkane and then had a stint in China.
Then came a return home to sign for Wydad before a prolific spell in Turkey with Hatayspor ended following a devastating earthquake in early 2023.
A brief stint in Qatar came after that, but the transfer that really elevated him to the next level came when he joined Greek giants Olympiacos.
El Kaabi has scored 75 goals in two and a half years there, including the winner against Fiorentina in the UEFA Conference League final in May 2024 -- a stooping header rather than a bicycle kick.
Meanwhile El Kaabi first stood out at international level by finishing as the top scorer as Morocco won the 2018 African Nations Championship, a tournament for locally-based players.
He played at that year's World Cup in Russia and then captained his country to another African Nations Championship triumph in 2021.
El Kaabi also played at the Cup of Nations in 2022 and 2024 but had never scored at the tournament until this edition.
Having overtaken Soufiane Rahimi and Youssef En-Nesyri in the pecking order, he will be hoping to fire the hosts to victory against rank outsiders Tanzania in Rabat on Sunday.
R.Ríos--ECdLR
