Zachary Elbouzedi ( ar, البوزيدي, ʾalbuzīdī, ); born 5 April 1998) is an Irish 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 ...
who plays as a
midfielder
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 ...
for
Allsvenskan
Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...
club
AIK
AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...
.
Club career
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Elbouzedi started his career with Malahide United. He joined
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...
on a free transfer deal in the summer of 2017 from
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 pla ...
. He was not able to play immediately due to an injury, but manager
John Robertson John, Jon, or Jonathan Robertson may refer to:
Politicians United Kingdom politicians
* J. M. Robertson (John Mackinnon Robertson, 1856–1933), British journalist and Liberal MP for Tyneside 1906–1918
*John Robertson (Bothwell MP) (1867–1926) ...
believed he would compete for a place in the team when healthy.
Elgin City (Loan)
He was signed by
Elgin City
Elgin City Football Club (also known as City or The Black and Whites) is a professional senior football club based in Elgin, Moray.
Elgin was founded in 1893 and originally played their football in the Highland Football League. The club was g ...
on a 28 day long emergency loan contract on 30 December 2017.
After working himself back to match fitness by playing for Elgin City, Elbouzedi made his professional debut for Inverness Caledonian Thistle on 13 March 2018 against
Dunfermline Athletic
Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...
.
Waterford
Zak left Inverness on 31 August 2018, after terminating his contract by mutual consent after an injury ravaged season and only playing in one game in the 2018–19 season, which was a League Cup win over
Cove Rangers
Cove Rangers Football Club is a senior Scottish football club currently playing in the Scottish Championship. They are based in the Cove Bay area of Aberdeen and play their football at Balmoral Stadium, having left their former home at Allan ...
.
On 7 November 2018, Elbouzedi joined
League of Ireland Premier Division
The League of Ireland Premier Division ( ga, Príomhroinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland f ...
side
Waterford
"Waterford remains the untaken city"
, mapsize = 220px
, pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe
, pushpin_relief = 1
, coordinates ...
.
He made 29 appearances for the Blues in all competitions, scoring 6 goals in an impressive season personally despite a disappointing season for the club as they finished in sixth place.
Lincoln City
On 16 December 2019, it was announced that Elbouzedi would move to English club Lincoln City on 1 January 2020 after signing a long-term deal with the club. He scored his first goal for Lincoln in an
EFL Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...
tie against
Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
on 8 December 2020.
Bolton Wanderers (loan)
On 16 January 2021, he would join
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
on loan for the remainder of the season. He would make his debut a few hours later, starting the
EFL League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
game against
Cheltenham Town
Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...
.
AIK
On 15 July 2021, it was confirmed that he would join Swedish
Allsvenskan
Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...
side
AIK
AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...
for an undisclosed fee, signing a contract until 31 December 2024. He would make his AIK and Allsvenskan debut just a few days later, coming off the bench in the 85th minute against
Kalmar FF
Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1910, the clu ...
.
International career
Elbouzedi has represented the Republic of Ireland at youth international level. He remains eligible to play for the
Libya national football team
The Libya national football team ( ar, منتخب ليبيا لكرة القدم) represents Libya in men's international association football and it is controlled by the Libyan Football Federation. The team has never qualified for FIFA World Cup ...
due to his father being Libyan and has been contacted about representing Libya but has always stated he only ever wanted to play for the Republic of Ireland. Elbouzedi was capped at under 21 level for the first time in 2019 and was selected for the
2019 Toulon Tournament
The 2019 Toulon Tournament (officially french: 47ème Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) was the 47th edition of the Toulon Tournament. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 1 to 15 June 2019. England w ...
.
Personal life
Elbouzedi was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
to a
Libyan
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
father and an Irish mother.
Career statistics
Honours
;Inverness CT
*
Scottish Challenge Cup
The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,2017–18
Bolton Wanderers
*
EFL League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
third-place (promotion):
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...