Abdelkrim El Hadrioui (; born 6 March 1972) is a Moroccan former 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 played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

Career

Born in

Taza Taza () is a city in northern Morocco occupying the corridor between the Rif mountains and Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez and 150 km south of Al Hoceima. It recorded a population of 148,406 in the 2019 Moroccan ...

, Hadrioui began his career at AS.FAR, helping them win one

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

title. In January 1997, after the sale of Dimas to

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, Mário Wilson, who managed AS.FAR a year before, recommend him to Benfica, who subsequently signed him. He made his league debut on 1 March 1997 in a 3–1 loss against Chaves and quickly took the starting role from Pedro Henriques. He scored his first and only goal for Benfica on the

1997 Taça de Portugal Final Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 16 ...

lost to Boavista. After the arrival of

Scott Minto Scott Christopher Minto (born 6 August 1971) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player he was as a left back who played in the Premier League for Chelsea and West Ham United and in Portugal for B ...

and

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit. A midfielder, Souness achieved his greatest period of success as an integral part of the Liverpool team of the late 19 ...

, his influence was greatly reduced, only appearing sporadically throughout his

second year The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...

, but still bagged 20 matches, for a total for 28 appearances for Benfica. In 1998, he moved to

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

, becoming an undisputed starter, and even attracting attention of other clubs, such as

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 Foot ...

in August 2000. After four seasons at Alkmaar, El Hadrioui moved to Belgian, playing for two years with

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, retiring in 2005 at the age of 33 years after a one-year spell with

Ittihad Khemisset Ittihad Zemmouri Khemisset () is a Moroccan football club based in Khemisset. The club was founded in 1940. They play their home games at Stade du 18 novembre. Honours * Moroccan League First Division **Runners-up (1): 2008 *Coupe du Trône ...

. Internationally, he was a member of the Morocco national team that competed at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

in the United States and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

in France. He also participated at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Career statistics

International goals

References

External links

* * 1972 births Living people Moroccan men's footballers Moroccan expatriate men's footballers Morocco men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Morocco 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2000 African Cup of Nations players AS FAR players S.L. Benfica footballers Royal Charleroi S.C. players AZ Alkmaar players Eredivisie players Primeira Liga players Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Moroccan expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Men's association football defenders People from Taza IZ Khemisset players Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Morocco Mediterranean Games medalists in football Competitors at the 1991 Mediterranean Games {{Morocco-footy-defender-stub