Soufiane Rahimi

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Soufiane Rahimi
Rahimi in 2021
Personal information
Full name Soufiane Rahimi[1]
Date of birth (1996-06-02) 2 June 1996 (age 27)[1]
Place of birth Casablanca, Morocco
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Position(s) Forward, winger
Team information
Current team
Al Ain
Number 21
Youth career
2006–2017 Raja CA
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2017–2021 Raja CA 83 (30)
2017–2018EJS Casablanca (loan) 28 (17)
2021– Al Ain 65 (26)
International career
2021– Morocco A' 10 (6)
2021– Morocco 8 (0)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Morocco
African Nations Championship
Winner 2020 Cameroon
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 02:24, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 02:24, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

Soufiane Rahimi (Arabic: سفيان رحيمي; born 2 June 1996) is a Moroccan professional footballer who plays as a forward for UAE Pro League club Al Ain and the Morocco national football team.

Rahimi started his professional career playing for Raja CA, before being sent on a loan to Étoile de Casablanca. Rahimi then returned back to his former club after the end of his loan, helping the club win the 2019–20 Botola, the 2018 and 2021 CAF Confederation Cup and the 2019–20 Arab Club Champions Cup. He then signed with UAE Pro League side Al Ain FC.

A full international for Morocco since 2021, Soufiane represented the nation at the 2020 African Nations Championship, 2021 FIFA Arab Cup and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Rahimi was the top goalscorer of the 2020 African Nations Championship, with five goals.

Club career[edit]

Raja Club Athletic[edit]

Rahimi scored a total of four goals for Raja CA in 2018 CAF Confederation Cup campaign,[2] including two goals[3] in the final against AS Vita Club in Casablanca. This allowed them to qualify and play the 2019 CAF Super Cup against Espérance Sportive de Tunis; which then ended up winning after a 2–1 victory.[4]

He has been one of the highest performing players in his last two seasons in Botola, becoming a top pick for the Moroccan national team coach to join the local squad. He has been closely linked with a move to Europe, and has stated his ambition of joining the Serie A in press conferences.[5]

Al Ain[edit]

On 21 August 2021, he had played his last match with Raja CA in the 2020 Arab Club Champions Cup Final, therefore defeating Al-Ittihad in penalties; before transferring to Emirati club Al Ain.[6] On September 17, Rahimi scored his first goal for the club in a 4–1 victory against Al-Ittihad Kalba.[7][8] On 12 November 2022, Rahimi scored a double against Sharjah.[9] On 7 November 2023, Rahmi scored in a 3–2 victory against Al Fayha in the 2023–24 AFC Champions League to qualify his team into the Knock-out stages.[10] In the Round of 16, Rahimi scored the winning goal against Nasaf to qualify the team to the Quarter-finals.[11] Rahimi went on to score the winning goal in a 1–0 victory against Al Nassr in the first leg of the quarter-finals and two goals in the second leg.[12][13] On 15 March 2023, Rahimi scored his first ever hat-trick for the club in a 4–0 win against Ajman.[14] In the first leg of the 2023–24 AFC Champions League Semi-final, Rahimi scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 victory against Al Hilal SFC, putting an end to Al Hilal 34 game winning streak.[15][16][17]

International career[edit]

In 2018, Rahimi was called up to the Moroccan national A' team by Jamal Sellami.[18] Rahimi represented Morocco in the 2020 African Nations Championship, He scored a double in his third game of the group stages against Uganda.[19] He scored in the quarter-finals in a 3–1 victory against Zambia.[20] Morocco won an astonishing 4–0 in the semi-finals against Cameroon.[21] With this performance, Rahimi managed of scoring a total of five goals thus helping his country to achieve the title and becoming the first and only country to win the Championship back to back. He was awarded top scorer and best player of the tournament.[22]

Over two years after his last appearances with the national team, Rahimi was included in Morocco's squad for the friendlies against Angola and Mauritania in March 2024.[23][24] He came off the bench against Angola and helped create the own-goal by David Carmo. Morocco won 1-0.[25][26]

Personal life[edit]

Born in Casablanca, Soufiane Rahimi is the older brother of Houssine Rahimi, who is a footballer and a striker.

Career statistics[edit]

Club[edit]

As of match played 20 April 2024[27]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup[a] League cup[b] Continental Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
EJS Casablanca 2017–18 Botola 3 28 17 28 17
Raja CA 2018–19 Botola 26 6 4 0 16[c] 4 3[d] 0 49 10
2019–20 28 10 1 0 9[e] 3 5[f] 1 43 14
2020–21 29 14 2 0 12[g] 5 7 1 50 20
Total 83 30 7 0 37 12 15 2 142 44
Al Ain 2021–22 UAE Pro League 23 8 6 1 29 9
2022–23 26 11 6 0 5 3 1[h] 0 38 14
2023–24 16 7 1 0 6 2 10[i] 11 33 20
Total 65 26 7 0 17 6 10 11 1 0 100 43
Career total 176 73 14 0 17 6 47 23 16 2 270 104
  1. ^ Includes Moroccan Throne Cup, UAE President's Cup
  2. ^ Includes UAE League Cup
  3. ^ Appearances in CAF Confederation Cup
  4. ^ One appearance in CAF Super Cup, two appearances in Arab Club Champions Cup
  5. ^ Appearances in CAF Champions League
  6. ^ Appearances in Arab Club Champions Cup
  7. ^ One appearance in CAF Champions League, eleven appearances and five goals in CAF Confederation Cup
  8. ^ Appearance in UAE Super Cup
  9. ^ Appearances in AFC Champions League

International[edit]

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Morocco 2021 2 0
2022 4 0
2024 2 0
Total 8 0
Scores and results list Morocco's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rahimi goal.
List of international goals scored by Soufiane Rahimi for Morocco A'[28]
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 26 January 2021 Stade de la Réunification, Douala, Cameroon  Uganda 2–1 5–2 2020 African Nations Championship
2 4–1
3 31 January 2021 Stade de la Réunification, Douala, Cameroon   Zambia 1–0 3–1 2020 African Nations Championship
4 3 February 2021 Limbe Stadium, Limbe, Cameroon  Cameroon 2–0 4–0 2020 African Nations Championship
5 3–0
6 4 December 2021 Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar  Jordan 4–0 4–0 2021 FIFA Arab Cup

Honours[edit]

Raja CA

Al Ain

Morocco

Individual

Record

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021: List of players: Morocco" (PDF). FIFA. 4 December 2021. p. 8. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  2. ^ Confederation Cup: Soufiane Rahimi scores twice as Morocco's Raja crush Vita Club 3–0 in final first-leg Archived 3 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. GhanaSoccernet.com.
  3. ^ Raja Casablanca win African Confederation Cup. Reuters.
  4. ^ "Raja beat Esperance to win Super Cup". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Soufiane Rahimi is interested in a Serie A club". Morocco Latest News. 3 June 2021. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Al Ahly target Soufiane Rahimi joins Emirati side Al Ain". kingfut.com. 8 August 2021. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  7. ^ "بالفيديو: رحيمي يسجل أول أهدافه بقميص العين الإماراتي". ar.le360.ma (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  8. ^ "رحيمي يسجل أول أهدافه مع العين ويقوده للفوز على اتحاد كلباء برباعية -فيديو". Le Site Info Arabe (in Arabic). 17 September 2021. Archived from the original on 27 February 2022. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  9. ^ "رحيمي يواصل التألق في الدوري الإماراتي". Hespress - هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية (in Arabic). 12 November 2022. Archived from the original on 15 November 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  10. ^ "Group A: Al Fayha (KSA) 2-3 Al Ain FC (UAE)". the-AFC. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  11. ^ "AFC Champions League: Soufiane Rahimi nets late winner as Al Ain edge Nasaf". the-AFC. Archived from the original on 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  12. ^ "AFC Champions League: Rahimi strike gives Al Ain advantage over Al Nassr". the-AFC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2024. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
  13. ^ "MSN". www.msn.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  14. ^ "Al Ain Thrash Ajman 4-0 in ADNOC Pro League". www.uaeproleague.ae. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  15. ^ "Al Ain ends Al Hilal's 34 game winning streak". ESPN.com. 17 April 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
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  18. ^ Soufiane Rahimi, au nom du père Archived 4 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Le360.ma.
  19. ^ Football, CAF-Confedération Africaine du. "Holders Morocco reach CHAN quarters, Uganda out". CAFOnline.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
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  21. ^ Football, CAF-Confedération Africaine du. "Two-goal hero Rahimi sends Morocco to CHAN final, Cameroon crash out". CAFOnline.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  22. ^ Football, CAF-Confedération Africaine du. "Morocco star Rahimi wins CHAN best player, top-scorer awards". CAFOnline.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  23. ^ Yabiladi.com. "Morocco squad announcement : Brahim Diaz, Soufiane Rahimi to play against Angola, Mauritania". en.yabiladi.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  24. ^ Simpara, Mahamadou. "Regragui Calls Up All Star Lineup for Upcoming Friendlies". Morocco World News. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  25. ^ d'Agadir-Friendlies 1, Stade. "Morocco vs Angola". beIN SPORTS. Archived from the original on 23 March 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ Rahhou, Jihane. "Morocco Claims 1-0 Victory over Angola in Friendly Match". Morocco World News. Archived from the original on 23 March 2024. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
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  28. ^ "Soufiane Rahimi". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  29. ^ "يتوج سفيان رحيمي بجائزة أفضل لاعب في بطولة البطولة الاحترافية 2019/2020" (in Arabic). 27 November 2020. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  30. ^ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
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  32. ^ "المغربي رحيمي ينفرد بصدارة هدافي الشان". كووورة. 3 February 2021. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  33. ^ "تشكيلة "الشان" المثالية تضم 5 لاعبين مغاربة". Hespress - هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية (in Arabic). 8 February 2021. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  34. ^ "رحيمي أفضل لاعب في الإمارات خلال شهر شتنبر". Hespress - هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية (in Arabic). 11 October 2021. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
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  38. ^ "رابطة المحترفين الإماراتية تتوج سفيان رحيمي". Hespress - هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية (in Arabic). 1 March 2023. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
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External links[edit]