Few players have scored an acrobatic return during their career. Ayoub El Kaabi belongs to an even smaller circle: it is difficult to list all the scissors he has designed. With the Atlas Lions alone, the 32-year-old striker scored three times with his bicycle kicks. While waiting for a new masterpiece, the general public will certainly remember him for this diabolically technical gesture slammed against the Comoros for the opening match of the Moroccan African Cup of Nations (2-0), Sunday.
As if the figure wasn’t enough in itself, El Kaabi performed it after a deep and backward call, where attackers tend to attempt it after waiting for a cross from a static position. However, the player trained at Racing Casablanca has an advantage over the competition: he offers himself general acrobatics rehearsals at the slightest opportunity in an official match. You just have to go back to June 2025 to enjoy his last master class with Morocco and this scissors activated backwards and upon receiving an opening addressed from midfield against Benin (1-0).
If he administers these flights in a much less athletic and aerial style, there is Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his ability to attempt these contortions in improbable situations. Via a more academic style this time, the current Olympiakos scorer also managed an acrobatic recovery during qualifying for the 2022 World Cup against Guinea-Bissau (5-0) in October 2021.
Unfortunately for cycling enthusiasts, El Kaabi was not selected for the Moroccan epic in Qatar. Proof of the precariousness of his place at the front of the Atlas Lions team, he did not start against the Comorians, although his performance combined with Soufiane Rahimi’s missed penalty could reshuffle the cards.
4 returned in 4 months
If in Europe the works of the ex-Al Sadd player had gone rather unnoticed, he is not unknown to followers of African football. Some remember victorious acrobatic figures when he roamed the pitches of Moroccan D2 with Racing Casablanca and D1 with the Renaissance sportive de Berkane or Wydad de Casablanca.
After a little-noticed stint in China at Hebei FC, his return to WAC (Wydad Athletic Club) allowed him to relaunch his career and the highlights machine. Author of 26 goals in 43 matches in all competitions during the 2020-2021 season, he pulled four acrobatic recoveries out of his hat in the space of four months, including one of his most technically pure against Horoya AC in the African Champions League (2-0) in March 2021.
In June, he went so far as to repeat his arabesques during two consecutive Championship matches. First a sumptuous winning goal against Berrechid (1-0) and three days later by sanctioning in the most insolent way a missed clearance from a defender of Difaâ El Jadida (4-2).
In the tone of “try again”, the CAN account published a compilation of his scissor attempts during the 2018 and 2020 African Nations Championships. The one who started his career as a defender hit the bar and the post during these tournaments.
Earthquake and frames
His current collection is enough to panic social networks, stunned that montages lasting more than three minutes solely composed of bicycles exist. Only the person concerned keeps a cool head in the face of his creations. El Kaabi had an insane 2023-2024 season, at the end of which he compiled 33 goals, including 16 in European Cups, including 5 against Aston Villa and the only one in the Conference League final won against Fiorentina (1-0).
Incidentally, the Moroccan international scored an acrobatic rebound at Maccabi Tel Aviv in the quarter-final. However, he only placed this achievement in second position in his ranking of his greatest goals in Europe. “It was during Ramadan. Fortunately, it went well because my friends were worried that my performance would not be optimal due to Ramadan. This goal was superb,” he commented to UEFA.
During interviews, the man who had to leave Hatayspor in 2023 because of the terrible earthquake in Türkiye preferred to talk about his childhood rather than decipher his strokes of genius. Originally from Derb Mila, a “modest neighborhood of Casablanca”, he grew up in a “somewhat difficult financial situation”. “During the holidays, I supplemented my income with odd jobs, mainly carpentry work. I did carpet cleaning, hawking salt,” he described to UEFA.
Carpenter, “this is a job that our family, our brothers and sisters and our friends have done. It was an honor to do this work. It’s a truly wonderful profession, one that encompasses both art and creativity. » El Kaabi imported this imagination onto Moroccan lawns.
