Hicham Zerouali (; 17 January 1977 – 5 December 2004), nicknamed 'Zero' or the 'Moroccan Magician', was a Moroccan
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 ...
. He played as a
forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
*Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Smal ...
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...
.
Club career
Aberdeen
After playing in his native Morocco for US Yacoub El Mansour and USP Police, Zerouali was signed by
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
manager
Ebbe Skovdahl
Ebbe Skovdahl Hansen (5 July 1945 – 23 October 2020) was a Danish football manager. He most prominently was a successful manager at Brøndby, for whom he had also played in his active years. He helped turn the side into the most dominant Danis ...
from
FUS de Rabat
Fath Union Sport (), commonly known as FUS Rabat, is a Moroccan professional football club based in Rabat and currently playing in the first division. The club was founded on 10 April 1946. 'Fath Union Sport' is the name of the sports club wh ...
in November 1999 for a fee of £450,000, on the recommendation of the club's
director of football
A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...
,
Keith Burkinshaw
Harry Keith Burkinshaw (born 23 June 1935) is an English former professional footballer and football manager. He is one of the most successful managers of Tottenham Hotspur, winning three major trophies for the club as manager there.
Playing ca ...
. He became the first player in the United Kingdom to wear the shirt number '0' in 2000, which was outlawed the following season by the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...
and the
Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
in England.
In January 2000, Zerouali scored a thirty-yard
free kick
A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play.
Association football
In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...
in a fourth round
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,St Mirren to take the tie to a replay. Zerouali then scored in the 2–0 replay win at
Pittodrie
Pittodrie Stadium, commonly referred to as Pittodrie, from which the surrounding residential area has taken its name, is an all-seater stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. Used primarily for football, it has been the home ground of the Scottish Profess ...
to help the club into the next round of the competition. Aberdeen reached both the 2000 Scottish League Cup Final and the 2000 Scottish Cup Final with Zerouali playing in both matches, although they ended in defeat to
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 ...
and
Rangers
A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
respectively.
In August 2000, Zerouali was injured with a broken ankle during a match against
Motherwell
Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...
, and subsequently missed out on a place at the Sydney Olympic Games, and was eventually out of action for a full year. In one of his more memorable outings after his return, he scored a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...
against
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
.
Al-Nasr and FAR Rabat
After his contract at Aberdeen expired, Zerouali moved to play his football in the United Arab Emirates with the team
Al-Nasr
Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...
for a year, before returning to live in his home country of Morocco in 2003, signing for
FAR Rabat
Association sportive des Forces armées royales (, ), abbreviated as AS FAR (), is a professional sport club based in Morocco's capital Rabat, that competes in Botola, the top tier of Moroccan football.
The club was founded in 1958, 3 years aft ...
, where he won the
Coupe du Trône
The Moroccan Throne Cup or the Throne Cup () is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout Association football, football tournament in Football in Morocco, Moroccan football, organized by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation.The first club to w ...
that year.
International career
Zerouali won fourteen caps for the
Morocco national football team
The Morocco national football team (Arabic: المنتخب المغربي لكرة القدم) represents Morocco in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, the governing ...
and scored six goals. He featured for Morocco in the
2002 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2002 African Cup of Nations was the 23rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa (Confederation of African Football, CAF). It was hosted by Mali. Just like in 2000 African Cup of Nations, 2000, th ...
in
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
, and scored two goals in a 2–1 win over
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...
. He also played in the
1997 FIFA World Youth Championship
The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 i ...
. He was in the international squad a month before his death.
Death
Zerouali was killed in a car accident in
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...
in December 2004 aged 27. Only the previous Saturday, he had scored two goals in a league game for his club. He left a daughter with his girlfriend in Aberdeen.
A firm fans' favourite at Aberdeen, he was affectionately known as 'Zero' to the supporters. A memorial and tribute was held at
Pittodrie Stadium
Pittodrie Stadium, commonly referred to as Pittodrie, from which the surrounding residential area has taken its name, is an all-seater stadium in Aberdeen, Scotland. Used primarily for Association football, football, it has been the home ground o ...
after he died, which was attended by thousands of fans, despite him not playing for the club at the time and only having spent a short period there.