Abd-El-Aziz Safimayo Yousef (; born 5 October 1999) 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for Victoria Highlanders FC in

League1 British Columbia League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a Semi-professional sports, semi-professional men's and women's association football, soccer league in British Columbia, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the British Colu ...

. Born in Saudi Arabia, he represents Somalia internationally.

Early life

Yousef was born in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, and was raised in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

to parents of Somali origin. Prior to signing with Wanderers, Yousef was a trialist for the youth programme of Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

side Cambuur.

Club career

On 9 April 2019, Yousef signed with

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

side

HFX Wanderers Halifax Wanderers FC, also written as HFX Wanderers FC, is a Canadian professional soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) at the top of the Canadian soccer league system, and play their home ...

. After not playing a single match throughout the 2019 season, On December 14, the club announced that Yousef would not be returning for 2020. In May 2022, he signed with Rivers FC in

. In May 2023, he joined Victoria Highlanders FC in League1 British Columbia.

International career

Yousef was called up to the Somalia national team for a pair of 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

on August 25, 2019. He made his debut for the Ocean Stars in the first match in

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

on September 5 which ended in a 1–0 victory. This result also was the first ever win in World Cup qualifying for Somalia in the nation's history. In December 2019 Yousef was called up for the

2019 CECAFA Cup The 2019 CECAFA Cup was the 40th edition of the annual CECAFA Cup, an international football competition consisting of the national teams of member nations of the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA). It took place in ...

, where he started four matches as Somalia was eliminated in the group stage.

References

External links

HFX Wanderers player profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yousef, Abd-El-Aziz 1999 births Living people Men's association football wingers Canadian men's soccer players Naturalized citizens of Somalia Somalian men's footballers 21st-century Somalian sportsmen Soccer players from Vancouver Somalian emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Somalian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Canadian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands HFX Wanderers FC players Canadian Premier League players Somalia men's international footballers League1 British Columbia players Kamloops United FC players 21st-century Canadian sportsmen