He was almost kidnapped by the Netherlands, but he chose Morocco. Sofiane Amrabat is the third lung of the Atlas Lions at the 2022 World Cup
Morocco midfielder Sofiane Amrabat closed the spaces for Spain stars / Reuters
There is no doubt that the success of the Moroccan team in the Qatar 2022 World Cup so far has gathered around it several ideal conditions that have made the Atlas Lions write history by qualifying for the quarter-finals.
These circumstances ranged from the players' performance, the coach's tactics and the encouragement of Moroccan supporters, and were largely confined to the players' feet, with midfielder Sofiane Amrabat among the most prominent Moroccan players who wrote the epics of the Moroccan national team in World Cup.
The 26-year-old Moroccan star and Fiorentina midfielder has played every available minute so far at the World Cup and has played a key role in the balance of Morocco's play, as a defensive midfielder in Moroccan coach Walid Regraki's 4-3-3 tactic.
Despite his injury before the Spain game, the Moroccan midfielder did well in the midfield battle against Spain stars Gavi and Pedri.
Sofiane Amrabat third lung of Morocco / Reuters
After the end of the match, Amrabat revealed that he stayed awake until three in the morning in order to receive physiotherapy, in order to be present in the Spain match, to calculate the price of the Qatar 2022 World Cup final.
The place where Sofiane Amrabet plays is one of the most difficult roles that football players can play, as he is responsible for controlling the rhythm of the midfield, and plays the role of a link between defense and attack, and in modern football, football battles are decided by controlling the center of the field, and owning the best players who perform best in that position, a point that decided many matches for the Moroccan national team thanks to its outstanding player Sofiane Amrabat.
Sofiane Amrabat Moroccan talent formed in Dutch schools
Sofiane Amrabet was born on 21 August 1996 in the Dutch town of Pla Rikum to immigrant parents originating from the town of Ben Tayeb in the Rif Mountains of Morocco.
At the age of seven when he joined the young Dutch team De Zoevogels in 2003, Sofiane began playing football, before joining the academy of Dutch club Utrecht in 2006, where he received his sports training and his talent was honed, which led Dutch club officials to grant him a professional contract in November 2013 at the age of 17, fearing that he would be kidnapped by other Dutch clubs.
Sofiane Amrabat progressed with Utrecht in their age groups, until he promoted to the first team in September 2014, under the guidance of coach Rob Alvlin, who gave him the opportunity to make his professional debut at the age of 18, on November 2, 2014.
During his first season in the Eredivisie, rookie Sofiane made do just 4 appearances, due to intense competition for the main midfield spots in Utrecht.
In the following season, under current Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, Sofiane made 12 appearances in all competitions, providing 3 assists.
Sofiane Amrabet signed a five-season contract with Fiorentina in 2020 /shutterstock
Sofiane Amrabat continued his gradual development under Dutch coach Ten Hag in the 2016-2017 season, making 38 official appearances, scoring one goal and assisting four others.
His brilliance in that season has attracted the interest of many big Dutch clubs, such as league champions Feyenoord Rotterdam, who signed him in June 2017, for 4 years, for 5 million euros.
At Feyenoord, Sofiane had a difficult experience, due to a lack of participation, with whom he only made 33 appearances in two seasons.
Amrabat then moved to another destination in Belgium, where he signed for Belgian club Brugge, who signed him on August 24, 2018, for 4 years, in a deal worth 2 million euros.
However, Sofiane Amrabat's situation with his new club remained complicated by the lack of start-up with the team and his change of position to a defender, before he was loaned on August 22, 2019 to Italian club Hellas Verona.
In Verona, Amrabat found his way, leading the Italian club to buy his contract from Club Brugge for 3.5 million before he was signed on January 30, 2020 by Fiorentina, the club where Sofiane still plays today, and represents a key piece in the formation of the Italian club.
In his Serie A career overall, Sofiane Amrabat has appeared in 101 appearances in the competition, scoring two goals and assisting only one. He has also been sent off on three occasions in Serie A and has received 30 yellow cards on all his appearances in Italy.
He was almost snatched by the Dutch mills from the tusks of the Atlas lions
Sofiane was on his way to represent the Netherlands, after playing at the junior level for the Netherlands national team and was on his way to follow the same path with the rest of the age groups of the Dutch mills, but the qualification of the "Atlas Lions" to the U-17 World Cup in the UAE in 2013, turned the future of the boy Sofiane Amrabat, especially after the visit made by the Dutch coach Pim Verbeek at the time to the Atlas Lions to his family, where he convinced them that he wanted to call Sofiane Amrabat to participate in the World Cup For juniors.
Sofiane Amrabet could not say no to his country's original team, so he decided to represent Morocco and play for the U-20 and U-23 teams, and former Atlas Lions coach Badou Zaki called him up for his first international friendly match with the Moroccan national team when he was 18 years old, when he matched his brother Noureddine in the Moroccan national team.
Despite playing that match with Morocco, the Dutch hopes of seeing Sofiane wearing the orange shirt were not interrupted, as Sofiane Amrabat stated in
