Zakaria Labyad ( Riffian-Berber: ⵣⴰⵎⴰⵔⵉⵢⴰ ⵍⴱⵢⴰⴷ; born 9 March 1993) is a 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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

. Born in the Netherlands, he represented that nation at under-17 level before switching his allegiance to

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 ...

and playing for them at under-23 level.

Club career

PSV

Born in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, Labyad came through the youth program of PSV. In January 2009, he extended his contract with PSV until the summer of 2012. Before joining PSV, Labyad played for

USV Elinkwijk Utrechtse Sportvereniging Elinkwijk, known as USV Elinkwijk is a Dutch football club, based in Utrecht. It played professional football during the years 1955–1970. Marco van Basten was a player of the club during his youth years. History The ...

. Labyad made his debut in the senior team on 25 February 2010 in a

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

home match against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

, coming on as a substitute for

Otman Bakkal Otman Bakkal (born 27 February 1985) is a Dutch retired international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He began his career at PSV, and was loaned to Den Bosch, Eindhoven, Twente and Feyenoord. After making a permanent move to ...

in the 71st minute. Three days later, Labyad also made his debut in the Eredivisie, coming on as a substitute for

Balázs Dzsudzsák Balázs Dzsudzsák (; born 23 December 1986) is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays for Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Debreceni VSC. Dzsudzsák began his career at his hometown club Debreceni VSC, winning consecutive league titles in e ...

in a match against

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

. On 18 April 2010, Labyad made his first appearance in the starting line-up in a home match against

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

. Labyad's selection in the starting line-up paid immediate dividends, with him scoring two goals in the 3–1 victory. In the last match of the 2009–10 season, Labyad was again in the starting lineup in a 1–1 draw against

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...

. Labyad more or less became a regular in the starting 11 in the 2011–12 season and experienced a great deal of success. He played in 32 matches and scored 6 goals. He scored a goal in the KNVB Beker semi final against

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

and followingly won the cup with PSV.

Sporting CP

On 3 April 2012,

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

's president revealed that Labyad will join the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

team for the 2012–13 season, on a free transfer, signing a 5-year deal contract. However, on 23 May, PSV's technical director Marcel Brands told Dutch media that Labyad's contract was extended for another year since Labyad failed to formally terminate his contract before the legal deadline of 15 May. On 2 July 2012, he officially joined Sporting. In his first season, he made 27 appearances for the club in which he scored three times.

Vitesse (loan)

In January 2014, after not playing a single match for Sporting during the first half of the season, Labyad was sent on loan to Dutch side Vitesse until the summer of 2015.

Return to Sporting CP

Labyad returned to Sporting CP for the 2015–16 Primeira Liga season to work with new Sporting CP manager

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe. He started his career with Sporting CP, going on to play for 12 ...

who insisted upon Labyad's return as part of him agreeing to accept the Sporting CP job offer. Indeed, Labyad was viewed as a "pilar" for the new Sporting CP by Jorge Jesus.

Fulham (loan)

On 1 February 2016, Labyad moved on loan to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

until the end of the 2015–16 season. On 31 August 2016, Sporting CP announced that both parties had agreed to terminate the contract.

Utrecht

On 5 January 2017, Labyad signed for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

side

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...

until 2019.

AFC Ajax

On 14 May 2018, Labyad signed for Eredivisie side

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

. He signed a four-season contract until June 2022.

Personal life

Labyad has said that he looks up to former PSV team-mate

Ibrahim Afellay Ibrahim Afellay (born 2 April 1986) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. He played youth football at Elinkwijk before joining the PSV Eindhoven youth academy at age 10. After debuting in 20 ...

, stating ''“Ibrahim is my friend. I have a lot of respect for him, not only because he plays in the same position as me, but also because as a person, he’s someone I look up to.”'' During his time at PSV, Labyad lived in Utrecht with his family, so he had to commute by train every day to Eindhoven. He followed an education in "Sport & Activity" at the ROC Eindhoven.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

PSV *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 2011–12 Ajax *

: 2018–19,

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 ...

, 2021–22 *KNVB Cup: 2018–19,

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Individual *

Eredivisie Player of the Month The Eredivisie Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged Eredivisie player each month of the season. The Eredivisie Player of the Month award is based on statistics ( StatsPerform) and votes from footba ...

: November 2017

References

External links

Zakaria Labyad
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but le ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Labyad, Zakaria 1993 births Living people Footballers from Utrecht (city) Association football midfielders Moroccan footballers Morocco international footballers Moroccan expatriate footballers Dutch footballers Dutch sportspeople of Moroccan descent USV Elinkwijk players PSV Eindhoven players Sporting CP footballers SBV Vitesse players Fulham F.C. players FC Utrecht players AFC Ajax players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Primeira Liga players English Football League players Expatriate footballers in Portugal Olympic footballers of Morocco Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in England Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in England