Hassan El Fakiri ( ar, حسن الفكيري, born 18 April 1977) is a Norwegian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

, and the current head coach of

3. divisjon The Norwegian Third Division, also called 3. divisjon, is the fourth highest division of the men's football league in Norway. Like the rest of the Norwegian football league system, the season runs from spring to autumn, running approximately from ...

club Os TF.

Career

Born in Amezzaourou, a town in the commune of

Temsamane Temsamane (Tarifit: Temsaman, ⵜⴻⵎⵙⴰⵎⴰⵏ, Arabic: تمسمان) is a commune in the Driouch Province of the Oriental administrative region of Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost c ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, El Fakiri started his career with the Norwegian, Oslo-based club

Lyn Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, it is best known for developing the ''Rayman'' and ''Beyond Good & Evil'' series. At 350 employees as of Se ...

. He made his debut in game against local rivals

Skeid Skeid is a Norwegian alliance sports club from Nordre Åsen, Oslo. It has sections for association football (one for elite and one for grassroots football), Nordic skiing and bandy. General history The club was founded as ''IK Skeid'' on 5 De ...

on 28 May 1995. As a young and talented midfielder, El Fakiri earned the admiration of the Lyn fans, who made him player of the year in 1997. El Fakiri joined SK Brann in 2000, instantly catching the eyes of scouts from the French-registered, Monaco based football club, AS Monaco FC. Due to SK Brann's dire financial straits at the time, El Fakiri was sold to the French Ligue 1 team before he had actually played a league game for SK Brann. El Fakiri played nine league games for SK Brann, scoring three goals, before leaving

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

in the transfer window. One of the most notable contributions from El Fakiri was a sterling performance in midfield in the first game of the 2000 Tippeliga season, a 4–1 home drubbing of local rivals Viking FK. Two of the goals in this game was scored by the striker

Mons Ivar Mjelde Mons Ivar Mjelde (born 17 November 1967) is a Norwegian association football, footballer coach and former player who works as head coach for the Norwegian club Øygarden FK, Øygarden. He is notable for having led SK Brann, Brann to the Norwegia ...

, who later re-signed El Fakiri, this time as the manager of SK Brann. El Fakiri's stay in Monaco started off slowly, being sent out on loan to both his boyhood Norwegian team Lyn and

Rosenborg BK Rosenborg Ballklub, commonly referred to simply as Rosenborg () or RBK, is a Norwegian professional football club from Trondheim that plays in Eliteserien. The club has won a record 26 league titles, a shared record 12 Norwegian Football Cup ti ...

. The 2002–03 French League 1 season saw El Fakiri's fortunes change, with AS Monaco coach Didier Deschamps' preferring to use the midfielder as a right back. El Fakiri was an unused substitute in the 2004 Champions League final between Monaco and Portuguese side

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

. El Fakiri's contract with Monaco expired in 2005, and he chose to continue his career with

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, joining the Bundesliga side on a Bosman free transfer. At Borussia, he returned to his favoured midfield berth, helping the side to tenth place in the 2005–06 Bundesliga. However, the next season Borussia were relegated from the Bundesliga after losing 1–0 at home to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...

on the last matchday. The relegation coincided with El Fakiri's contract expiring, and after considering several contract proposals from Norwegian clubs, he returned to Brann seven years after he left Brann for Monaco. His return to Bergen was a happy one, helping SK Brann to their first Norwegian championship in 44 years.

International career

El Fakiri was capped eight times by the Norway national football team.

Career statistics

:Source:

Honours

Monaco *

Coupe de la Ligue The Coupe de la Ligue (), known outside France as the French League Cup, was a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Football in France, French football organized by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The tournament was est ...

: 2002–03 *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

: Runner-up 2003–04 Brann * Norwegian Premier League:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fakiri, Hassan 1977 births Living people Moroccan emigrants to Norway Naturalised citizens of Norway Norwegian people of Moroccan descent Footballers from Oslo Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Association football midfielders Lyn Fotball players SK Brann players AS Monaco FC players Rosenborg BK players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Eliteserien players Ligue 1 players Bundesliga players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Expatriate footballers in Monaco