Yassine El Ghanassy (born 12 July 1990) is a Belgian 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 ...

who plays as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Yassine El Ghanassy was born on 12 July 1990 as the only son of the former football player Hajjaj El Ghanassy. He started playing when he was fifteen at the team Fayt-Manage in Hainaut. He was signed by the youth team of La Louvière, where he quickly gained the attention of many sides. At the age of sixteen, he went to the English team

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

, impressing on trial, but a transfer didn't follow as La Louvière wanted a transfer price which was too high for such a young player. In 2008, El Ghanassy made his debut in the first team of La Louvière. The team had just been relegated to the Third Division and was about to merge with RACS Couillet. El Ghanassy received some playing time, but nevertheless left for

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

not long afterwards. Although he was initially added to the youth team, he played a number of games in the

Jupiler Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

. Thanks to his creativity and drive he was being named as the successor to

Bryan Ruiz Bryan Jafet Ruiz González (; born 18 August 1985) is a Costa Rican former footballer. A left-footed attacking midfielder, he also played as a second striker. Ruiz is the only Central American footballer to have played in the UEFA Champions ...

, who had left in the summer of 2009 for

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

. Due to their similarities as players, he was compared to Ruiz by pundits. In his first appearances for Gent, El Ghanassy became known as a fine passer of the ball, and one who provided many assists for his teammates, but rarely scored himself. His first goal was scored in the Belgian League playoffs in 2009/10 against Zulte Waregem. Since that goal he has become more prolific. One of his most important contributions was a goal against the Belarusian team FC Naftan Novopolotsk in the Champions League qualifiers. It was the only goal in that game, which meant that Gent qualified for the third qualifying round. During this period, El Ghanassy was followed by several European top teams, with Manchester City,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, Everton, Anderlecht, Sunderland and

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being linked with the Belgian. On 25 October 2010, it was revealed scouts from Scottish club

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

had watched El Ghanassy in action. His agent described him as a "magician" in an interview with STV, saying he would encourage the player to move to the Glasgow club. On 11 July 2012,

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

confirmed the loan signing of El Ghanassy from Gent. He signed a season-long deal with an option to make the move permanent in West Bromwich Albion's favour. He scored his first goal for WBA against

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in the League Cup on 28 August 2012. On 30 January 2013, Dutch side

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announced that they had signed El Ghanassy on loan for the rest of the season. After turning down a three-year contract with Kairat in the

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League ( kk, Қазақстан Премьер Лигасы, ''Qazaqstan Premer Ligasy''), commonly referred to as Kazakh Premier League or simply Premier League, is the top division of football in Kazakhstan ...

during January 2015, El Ghanassy signed a one-year contract with Stabæk on 29 March. On 12 April 2015, he played his first match for the club against Norwegian club

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. After spells with Oostende and

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, as a ...

, El Ghanassy was released by the latter in October 2019. In January 2020, he was in talks with Ligue 2 side Stade Malherbe Caen about a contract, but a move never materialized.

International career

Because El Ghanassy has double Belgian-Moroccan nationality, he could choose to play for either country, leading to him playing International youth team games for both nations. El Ghanassy was called up by the national coach

Georges Leekens Georges Leekens (born 18 May 1949) is a Belgian football manager and former player. During his managerial career, he was in charge of four national teams: the Belgian, Tunisian, Algerian and Hungarian national football teams. He also managed ...

to play in the Belgium national team on 8 October 2010 and to play his first international game. El Ghanassy made his debut for Belgium in a friendly match against Finland, and as a result, would still be eligible to play for Morocco.

Personal life

On 8 March 2018, El Ghanassy received a six-month prison sentence after appearing in court for a speeding offence for the 15th time. He was given the jail term by a court in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

and was banned from driving for two years. This happened after being caught for reckless driving in June 2016.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

K.A.A. Gent *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

(1): 2009–10 Belgian Cup, 2009–10

References

External links