Karim El-Ahmadi Aroussi (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: كريم الأحمدي; born 27 January 1985) 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 le ...

who plays as a defensive midfielder. El-Ahmadi was born in the Netherlands and played 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 Bo ...

and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

before moving to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

in 2012 and subsequently returning to Feyenoord in September 2014 and before moving to the

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

in the Saudi Professional League in 2018. Born in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, he represents

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 ...

internationally.

Early life

El Ahmadi was born and raised in

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

, Netherlands. His parents are both Moroccan, making him eligible to acquire the Moroccan citizenship and represent the

Morocco national football team The Morocco national football team,french: Équipe du Maroc de football nicknamed "the Barbary lion, Atlas Lions", represents Morocco in men's international Association football, football competitions. It is controlled by the Royal Moroccan Foo ...

Club career

UDI

At the age of 9, El Ahmadi started playing football at local Enschede club

UDI Udi may refer to: Places * Udi, Enugu, a local government areas and city in Nigeria * Udi, a place in the Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, India People * Udi Gal (born 1979), Israeli Olympic sailor * Udi Vaks (born 1979), Israeli Olympic judoka ...

. He got noticed quickly by scouts from

Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germ ...

and was invited to join their academy.

FC Twente

On 21 March 2004, El Ahmadi made his official debut in

's first team in the away match against FC Utrecht (2–0), where he played 90 minutes. El Ahmadi able to play 2 more games against

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

and RBC Roosendaal but with the return of On the last match of the season 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 9 May 2004, El Ahmadi provided as assist for Kim Christensen to make it 3–2 but RKC Waalwijk scored in the late minutes to make 3–3. The following season 2004–05, El Ahmadi began coming on as a substitute for the next two games against Ajax and RKC Waalwijk at the start of the season. In a match against Heerenveen on 28 August 2004, El Ahmadi played for 90 minutes and setting up a goal for

Blaise Nkufo Isetsima Blaise Nkufo (born 25 May 1975) is a Swiss former international footballer who played as a striker and current coach of Rino's Tigers in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. He was born in Zaire and raised in Switzerland from the age o ...

in a 4–1 victory. On 13 November 2004, El Ahmadi scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win over

N.E.C. NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion f ...

At the end of the season, El Ahmadi played 16 league games, playing mostly on the wing positions. He then quickly became a first team regular. The following 2005–06 season, El Ahmadi found himself out of the first team and made 8 appearances following the arrival of

Kennedy Bakırcıoğlu Kennedy Bakircioglu (born 2 November 1980) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is best remembered for his time with Hammarby IF, with whom he won the 2001 Allsvenskan and 2014 Superettan titles. He also r ...

and

Patrick Gerritsen Patrick Gerritsen (; born 13 March 1987) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prospect of the Twente youth academy, Gerritsen made his breakthrough in the 2005–06 season. He would, however, be affected by sever ...

. In the following 2006–07 season, El Ahmadi suffered a knee injury in a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

match against Estonian side

Levadia Tallinn Football Club Infonet Levadia Tallinn, commonly known as FCI Levadia, or simply as Levadia, is a professional football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home grou ...

in a 1–1 draw. After recovering, El Ahmadi returned to the reserve and by mid-November, El Ahmadi played his first match of the season, coming on as a substitute for

Wout Brama Wout Brama () (born 21 August 1986) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for the FC Twente in the Eredivisie. Club career Twente Born in Almelo, Brama began his youth team at PH Almelo before moving to FC Twen ...

in a 7–1 win over Groningen. After the match, El Ahmadi began establishing himself in the starting eleven, playing in the right side of the support. In late-October, El Ahmadi signed a contract with the club, until 2009, with an options to extend until 2011. On 3 February 2007, El Ahmadi scored the first goal in a match with Twente won 2–1 over Excelsior. On 8 April 2007, El Ahmadi scored Twente's only goal in the game in a 1–1 draw against

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

. El Ahmadi played a single game for the club from 13 November 2006 to 29 April 2007. At the end of season 2006–07, the club finished fourth which resulted in entering the

The following 2007–08 season, Twente began suffering after the club sold Bakırcıoğlu to Ajax and

Sharbel Touma Sharbel Touma (; born 25 March 1979) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a winger. Beginning his career with Syrianska in the mid-1990s, he went on to represent Djurgårdens IF, AIK, Halmstad, Twente, Borussia Mönchen ...

sold to German side

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 ...

. Even worse, Patrick Gerritsen suffered a leg injury, leading El Ahmadi to get more playing time in the starting line-up. In late July, El Ahmadi signed a contract extension which will keep him until 2011. Manager Fred Rutten said on a new contract: ''"For the club it's fantastic that we can keep players of this kind,"''. At the end of 2007–08 season, El Ahmadi made 33 appearances, primarily playing as a defender. At the end of the season FC Twente qualified for the UEFA Champions League, all thanks to the rapid development from the defensive midfielder.

Feyenoord

On 16 April 2008, it was announced that El Ahmadi signed a five-year deal with Dutch club

for a transfer fee of €5 million (£4.3 million). After a groin injury had initially kept him from playing he made his debut on 2 October 2008, coming on as a substitute for

Luigi Bruins Luigi Bruins (born 9 March 1987) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder for VV Smitshoek. After being declined by Feyenoord at the age of six, the Rotterdam ...

in the

-match against Kalmar FF, which Feyenoord won 2–1. He made his debut in the starting line-up against

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

before coming off after 58 minutes, and the game ended in a 0–2 home defeat on 5 October 2008. On 9 November 2008, El Ahmadi scored his first goal for the club in a 5–2 win over

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 ...

. On 22 February 2009, El Ahmadi scored his second goal for the club in a 2–0 win over

De Graafschap VBV De Graafschap () is a professional football club from Doetinchem, Netherlands, playing in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football. It was formed on 1 February 1954 and they play their home games at the De Vijverberg stadium. ...

. Since making his debut, he played regularly in the starting line-up which led to interest from a German team Hamburger SV. In early April El Ahmadi, suffered an ankle injury before making his return in the last game of the season, a 3–2 loss against

Roda JC Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; Ripuarian: ), also known as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisie. ...

. At the end of the season, he was linked to league rivals

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

, however, no offer was made from the club. In the following 2009–10 season under manager

Mario Been Marinus Antonius Been (born 11 December 1963) is a Dutch football manager and former professional player. As a footballer, Been played for Feyenoord, Pisa, Roda JC, Heerenveen, FC Tirol Innsbruck and Excelsior. He played in an attacking midfiel ...

, El Ahmadi was deployed in central midfield with the rise of youngsters

Leroy Fer Leroy Johan Fer (born 5 January 1990) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig club Alanyaspor. He also represented the Netherlands, making 11 appearances between 2010 and 2014. Fer has various ...

and

Jonathan de Guzmán Jonathan Alexander de Guzmán (born 13 September 1987) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Sparta Rotterdam. Born in Canada, he represented the Netherlands internationally. De Guzmán is Canadian-born, but made himself a ...

. Playing in this position, he played 26 league games. In the quarter final of the

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 ...

, he scored a brace and set up a goal for captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst in a 3–0 win over PSV Eindhoven on 27 January 2010. Feyenoord would later on reach the final of the KNVB Cup, which they lost 6–1 on aggregate to Ajax. At the end of 2009–10 season, El Ahmadi was linked to another German team, Schalke 04. After a loan spell at Al Ahli Club, El Ahmadi returned to feyenoord. Under manager

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was cap ...

he managed to become a regular in the starting line-up as a midfielder forming a partnership with

Jordy Clasie Jordy Clasie (; born 27 June 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Eredivisie club AZ Alkmaar and for the Dutch national team. Club career Early career Clasie arrived at the youth Feyenoord Academy (Varkenoord ...

and

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 ...

. On 11 September 2011, he scored his first goal since 2009 in a 3–1 win over

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

. On 16 October 2011, El Ahmadi scored again this season in a 4–0 win over

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

Loan to Al Ahli Club

After making 15 league appearances in the 2010–11 season at Feyenoord, El Ahmadi joined an UAE team Al Ahli Club on a six-month loan deal in order for the club to boost funds required to sign a new striker on 25 January 2011. On 4 February 2011, he made his debut for the club in a 0–0 draw against

Al Dhafra S.C.C. Al Dhafra FC () is a professional Association football, football club based in Madinat Zayed, United Arab Emirates. As of the 2020–21 season they play in the UAE Arabian Gulf League. Their Al Dhafra futsal club, futsal club participated in AFC ...

On 24 March 2011, he scored his first goal in the UAE League with a 2–2 draw against

Ittihad Kalba Ittihad Kalba Football Club ( ar, نادي إتحاد كلباء لكرة القدم‎) is a football club in Kalba, United Arab Emirates. History Ittihad Kalba was established in 1972 when two clubs ''(Al Shabab)'' and ''(Al Rooba)'' merged w ...

. During his loan El Ahmadi appeared in 10 games and scored one goal. At the end of the season, he stated he wanted to play European Football again next season and that the level of competition at Al Ahli was 'too low' compared to the 'weakest teams in the Dutch league'. The chairman of Al Ahli football club, Abdullah Saeed Al Naboudah, said the club wanted to sign El Ahmadi on a permanent basis, however, the two clubs failed to reach an agreement.

Aston Villa

On 26 June 2012, both the British and Dutch media strongly linked El Ahmadi with a transfer to

of England's

. Soon after, new Villa manager

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...

confirmed his interest in the player. On 2 July 2012, El Ahmadi completed his transfer from Feyenoord to Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £2,000,000. This made him Lambert's first signing as Aston Villa manager, and Aston Villa's second signing of the summer (following Australia international

Brett Holman Brett Trevor Holman (born 27 March 1984) is a former Australian professional footballer who last played for Brisbane Roar in the A-League as an attacking midfielder. Born in Sydney, Holman played youth football for Northern Spirit before maki ...

's move from AZ). On 14 July 2012, El Ahmadi made his debut in a 2–1 win against Burton Albion at the

Pirelli Stadium Pirelli Stadium is an association football stadium on Princess Way in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was built in 2005 and is the current home of Burton Albion FC Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association foo ...

, demonstrating a man of the match performance. On 25 August, he made his home debut and scored a spectacular strike in the 74th minute, in Aston Villa's 3–1 defeat to Everton. Having made a good start despite losing opening two Premier League games of the season, El Ahmadi was voted the club's player of the month of August. Later in the season, El Ahmadi was left out of the squad due to injury and made 24 appearances across all competitions. El Ahmadi started the 2013–14 season in very good form, demonstrating solid performances in midfield, including a goal in a 3–2 win against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

.In Aston Villa's win against Chelsea, El Ahmadi escaped serious injury after Chelsea midfielder Ramires appeared to stamp on El Ahmadi. As a result, Ramires was sent off. Chelsea manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix GOIH (; born 26 January 1963), is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of Italian Serie A club Roma. Once dubbed "The Special One" by the British ...

was also sent to the stands in the aftermath of the incident.

Return to Feyenoord

On 1 September 2014, El Ahmadi returned to

for an undisclosed transfer fee, signing a contract that would keep him at De Kuip until 2017. On 22 April 2018 he played as Feyenoord won the 2017–18

final 3–0 against AZ Alkmaar.

Al-Ittihad

On 9 July 2018, El Ahmadi signed a two-year contract with

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

n side

International career

El Ahmadi played for the Dutch national youth teams, but opted to represent

at the

2005 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship was the 15th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It took place in the Netherlands between 10 June and 2 July 2005. Venues Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 2005 FIFA Worl ...

in the

. In May 2018 he was named in Morocco's 23-man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Personal life

El Ahmadi is a practicing

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Twente *

runner-up: 2003–04 Feyenoord *

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 ...

: 2016–17 * KNVB Cup: 2015–16, 2017–18; runner-up: 2009–10 *

Johan Cruijff 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 ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Al Ittihad *

King's Cup __NOTOC__ King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King Cup (sometimes named King's Cup), Saudi Arabian men's football nati ...

runner-up:

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 ...

Saudi Super Cup The Saudi Super Cup ( ar, كأس السوبر السعودي) is an annual super cup football match organised by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. Founded in 2013 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2022� ...

runner-up:

Individual *

Dutch Footballer of the Year The title Dutch Footballer of the Year (Dutch: ''Voetballer van het Jaar'') has been awarded in the Netherlands since 1984. The award is determined by a poll of Dutch professional footballers playing in the First (Eredivisie) and Second (Eerste Divi ...

: 2016–17

References

External links

*
Voetbal International – Karim El Ahmadi
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmadi, Karim 1985 births Living people Citizens of Morocco through descent Moroccan footballers Morocco international footballers Dutch footballers Moroccan Muslims Riffian people Dutch Muslims FC Twente players Feyenoord players Al Ahli Club (Dubai) players Aston Villa F.C. players Ittihad FC players Eredivisie players Premier League players Saudi Professional League players Dutch sportspeople of Moroccan descent Association football midfielders Footballers from Enschede UAE Pro League players 2012 Africa Cup of Nations players 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players 2017 Africa Cup of Nations players Moroccan expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Africa Cup of Nations players Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in England Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia