He also conquers hearts off the field: Who is Hakim Ziyech?

A high bonus will be paid to the players in Morocco, which has reached the semi-finals with great success in their history. But Hakim Ziyech will not receive any of these bonuses. It turned out that the Dutch-born football player did not accept any premiums from Morocco, where he played since 2015.

Hakim Ziyech, who did not earn even a penny during his time playing in Morocco, donated all of the bonuses he received to poor families in Morocco. Born in the Netherlands to an immigrant family, Hakim Ziyech made his career leap by transferring to Chelsea in 2020.

Life story

Hakim Ziyech (born 19 March 1993) is a Dutch-born Moroccan national football player who plays as a midfielder for Chelsea, one of the Premier League teams.

He was the youngest of 9 children born to his Moroccan mother and a Dutch father.

Hakim Ziyech, who played in the Midfield position of the Chelsea team, was born on March 19, 1993. Hakim Ziyech, 180 cm tall and 70 kilos, uses his left foot.

Career

The 29-year-old player transferred to the Heerenveen infrastructure from the Dutch 1st League ((Eredivise) teams in 2007 and was promoted to the A team in 2012. Two years later, Ziyech, who was on his way to Twente, joined the Dutch giant Ajax in 2016.

Hakim Ziyech, who scored 38 goals in 112 matches in the Amsterdam team, joined the Chelsea squad in 2020 with a transfer fee of 40 million Euros.

SC Heerenveen

Ziyech joined Heerenveen / FC Emmen football academy in 2004. On 2 August 2012, he made his debut for Heerenveen against Rapid Bucureşti in the third qualifying round of the 2012-13 UEFA Europa League. He made his Eredivisie debut 10 days later against NEC. The match ended in a 2-0 loss.

FC Twente

On August 17, 2014, it was announced that Ziyech had signed a four-year contract with Twente.

AFC Ajax

On 30 August 2016, he signed a five-year contract with AFC Ajax for 11 million Euros.[2]

National team

Ziyech was called up to the Dutch team for the first time in May 2015.

On September 23, 2015, he announced his decision to represent the Moroccan national team via social media. On 9 October 2015, he made his debut for Morocco in a friendly match against Ivory Coast. The match ended in a 1-0 loss.

December 2022

Continuing to make history as the first African team to reach the semi-finals in the 2022 World Cup, Morocco is making championship calculations in the tournament that witnessed the firsts.

African countries were first able to take part in the organization in 1934, as Egypt hijacked the ship bound for Uruguay in 1930.

Representatives of the African Continent have participated in the cup 49 times since 1934. In the struggle of 13 African teams, Morocco raised the bar to a different level.

Making good use of their ambition and athleticism, which won the admiration of all sports fans, the "Atlas Lions" combined the tactic of coach Walid Regragui, which has achieved success so far, and each match set historic scores and records.

Morocco is walking confidently towards the final in the tournament tree with the football it plays.

Morocco, which showed a very good defensive performance in the remaining 5 matches of the tournament, closed its castle to its rivals.

Morocco, which does not allow world stars to pass through the center of the defense and minimizes the danger of its opponents who turn to the flanks in that region, also has a goalkeeper like Bono in penalty shootouts. The 31-year-old netkeeper opened the door to the quarter-finals for his team by saving three penalties against Spain.

Morocco scored the only goal in the tournament's goal with Naif Aguerd in the group match against Canada.

Morocco, which prioritizes the security of its defense, received only 1 goal in the last 8 matches.

In the World Cup, Morocco closed its castle to teams such as Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and Croatia, while beating Georgia 3-0 and Chile 2-0 before the tournament, it was a goalless draw with Paraguay.

Bono, the first African goalkeeper to not concede in 4 games

Protecting the Moroccan National Team's goal, Yassine Bono made history as the first African net guard to not concede a goal in four matches in a single World Cup.

Bono, 31, played in Sevilla and played his 50th game for the national team against Portugal.

Raised the bar for African teams

Morocco, which was among the last 4 teams without being defeated for 13 matches in the qualifiers and tournament, became the most successful African team in the World Cup so far.

The African teams, which went to the quarter-finals with Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002, and Ghana in 2010, achieved the greatest success in history with Morocco reaching the semi-finals.

While African teams had their first point in the World Cup in 1970 and success in coming out of the first group in 1986, they set the bar much higher with the performance of Morocco in 2022.

The stars of world football, who eagerly awaited for what they will do before the tournament, remained in the shadow of Morocco's historical success.

Star football players such as Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Gavi, Pedri, and Alvaro Morata returned home with their results against Morocco.

Moroccan Walid Regragui, the first African coach to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, took office just 81 days before the start of the tournament.

Regragui, who played only 8 matches at the beginning of his team, including the tournament, became the coach who made the semi-finals with the fewest matches after Otto Gloria, who coached Portugal in 1966. Gloria led Portugal in 5 games until the semi-finals.

The 47-year-old coach, who invited Noussair Mazraoui and Hakim Ziyech, who was excluded by his predecessor Halilhodzic, to the squad, has already won the appreciation of football fans with his tactics and team spirit on the field.

Coaching a national team for the first time in his career, Regragui managed to make his mark alongside the coaches Didier Deschamps, Zlatko Dalic, and Lionel Scaloni, who won the semi-final ticket in the World Cup.

As well the success of the national team, the bond of the football players with their families, their benevolence, and their joy by prostrating put Morocco in a different place from other teams.

After the Portugal match, Moroccan football players, who ran to the stands where their fans were present and went to prostrate, shared their happiness with their families as in other matches.

One of Morocco's Chelsea stars, Hakim Ziyech, stands out with his exemplary attitude. Since 2015, the 29-year-old football player distributes the money from the achievements of the national team to the needy.