Soufiane Rahimi is a Moroccan professional footballer born in 1966. He plays in all attacking positions, and is mainly active on the left wing. He started his early career with the youth team of the Moroccan Raja Club Athletic.
He suffered from injury and exclusion, thought about leaving football, and was finally able to convince himself of his place in the first team, and moved to the Emirati club Al Ain since the summer of 2021.
He succeeded in proving his abilities locally and internationally, and in his best football period this year, he was crowned with the AFC Champions League with Al Ain Club and won the title of top scorer in the tournament.
He joined the Moroccan national team, and crowned his season with a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and achieved 6 records.
Birth and upbringing
Soufiane Rahimi was born on June 2, 1996 in a modest house attached to the “Loisis” stadium of Raja Club Athletic, which is dedicated to training, and is located in the Derb Sultan neighborhood of the city of… Casablanca Overlooking the coast Atlantic Ocean.
Rahimi is the second son of a sports family, and inherited the love of Raja Club – one of the pillars of Moroccan football– From his father, who is considered the spiritual father of the Green Club.
Father Mohammed Rahimi, nicknamed “Youari”, was the goalkeeper for the club’s youth team, but a car accident prevented him from continuing his career to the first team, and took off his gloves forever.
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The father remained associated with Raja for more than half a century, during which he witnessed its founders and its titles, and was the carrier of the players’ luggage and training equipment, since the sixties of the twentieth century.
Rahimi, the father, admits that he had a special hope, saying in press statements, “It was just a dream, but I dreamed that one day, one of my children would play for Raja.”
The birth of “Youari’s” son coincided with the Casablanca giant’s coronation as league champion in 1996, and out of his joy he thought of naming his son “Champion”, but in the end he chose the name Soufiane for him.
Youari’s youngest son, Hussein, played for the different age groups of the Green Eagles and reached the first team, while the eldest son, Amin, inherited his father’s job with the club after he retired.
Soufiane Rahimi lived with his family in a small house inside the Raja stadium in “Ouaziz”, and was able to complete his university studies. The family refuses to leave that house because it is the headquarters and repository of their memories.
Starting in the house of hope
Since his childhood, Sofiane’s life has revolved around the environment of the Green Eagles Club, with what this meant in terms of enjoying the privileges of having a professional training center where he spent most of his day.
He grew up loving Raja, and he did not lack role models when football was his passion and ambition, to achieve a dream that his father was unable to achieve.
Raja Club was part of his daily life, and he watched its stars from his bedroom window throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, and he mingled with the big stars in the locker room.
This atmosphere pushed Sofiane as a young player in the club’s school for two years, and with the youth team he played as a right back, and sometimes as a right winger. He was regular in training, while his father decided not to watch his matches so as not to influence the coaches’ decisions in favor of his son.
In parallel, the boy was “rewarded” by being a ball boy during the Raja first team’s matches at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca. He often appeared in Moroccan television reports in “sneaked” shots near the touchline or running with the players, happy to score a goal or win a title. His dream was always to get close to the stars of the green club.
He soon found it difficult to reconcile his studies with training at the Tessema stadium, which was designated for the youth categories and was far from his place of residence. He was also disabled by a serious injury to his knee for three months, during which time he was able to pass the preparatory level exam successfully.
When he returned to the atmosphere of matches and passed the promotion tests for the Raja Hope team, he suffered a decline that almost ended his career before it began, as he participated in only one match throughout the season.
When he was officially added to the youth team in 2017, he failed to prove himself and convince his coaches of his abilities, after he was nominated by the former Raja coach, Rachid Taoussi, and following that, it was decided to dispense with him.
critical turning point
The youngster’s career took a decisive turn when he was encouraged to join the amateur league club, Najm Al-Shabab, on loan, to develop his performance again.
The 20-year-old showed promising signs of his stardom with the team under coach Noureddine Harraf, especially in the second season, as he scored 17 goals in 28 matches.
His performance improved remarkably, and caught the attention of coach Jamal Fathi, the former sports director of Raja, who gave him the opportunity to return to the team and undergo an additional test, enabling him to sign his first professional contract with the Green Eagles.
Rahimi returned to the “heart team” – as he calls it – in the 2018-2019 season, under the leadership of the Spaniard Juan Carlos Garrido, the coach of the Raja team at the time, who believed in his talent, and he was quickly selected in the starting lineup in the continental and local championships.
Soufiane Rahimi shone in the African Confederation Cup matches that Raja won in 2018, but a serious injury almost ended his career, and kept him away from the stadiums for a long time again.
Green striker
Luck was on the side of “Ould Youari” – as the Raja Club family calls him – when he returned to the atmosphere of matches in his second adventure with the club, and showed strong levels, and became the star of the team.
Coach Garrido faced a tough test in his first appearance away from home in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast, against ASEC Mimosas.
Raja won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from sniper Rahimi, and five months later, he won the African competition with the team, and when he was 21 years old, he became an African star.
He scored crucial goals in the stadiums of competing African clubs, and provided four assists on his way to the final, and in the first leg against Vita Club in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he scored two goals, as Raja won 4-3 on aggregate.
Garrido recalls the fairytale story of the child with the club that runs through his veins, saying, “I’m really happy for him because he was so successful.”
Rahimi’s star shone in the ranks of the Green Club, and led it to the African Super Cup title at the expense of Tunisia’s Esperance, then the Moroccan League in 2020, after a strong competition with its neighbor and traditional rival, Wydad Athletic Club, as well as Nahdat Berkane Club.
Rahimi shone at the Arab level after leading Raja to win the Mohammed VI Cup for Arab Champions Clubs, and concluded his career with a continental title when he led them to win the African Confederation Cup again in 2021.
“Technically, Sofiane has all the characteristics you want,” says Garrido, adding: “His speed and strength with his right and left foot. He sees the right passes and can execute them. He is focused and a fighter.”
“What I liked was that you can play him in every position across the front line, left or right, or in midfield… He has this tactical intelligence and he works hard,” he continued, praising Rahimi’s brilliance.
The observation was echoed by another former Raja coach, Jamal Sellami, who said, “He has become an ideal player for others, because of what he has achieved and because of his focus on what is required of him to go far.”
As for his former coach in the Moroccan national team for local players Hussein Ammouta He says about him, “He has a predatory instinct in front of goal. He was not born with this instinct, but he mastered it through hard work.”
Amouta revealed that the promising star was always the first to arrive at training, and the first to line up in front of the goal, trying to practice a range of different skills.
His brother, Hussein Rahimi, says that Sufyan is “a source of pride for the family because he started from scratch and achieved glory and success.”
Al Ain leader in Asia
At the age of 25, Sofiane joined the ranks of the “Leader Al Ain” in August 2021 for 2.7 million euros on a contract extending until 2025.
He played at good levels in the three seasons he played, as he played 100 matches, during which he scored 43 goals and provided 36 assists.
In the 2021-2022 season, the “Atlas Lion” scored 11 goals and provided 11 assists in the league championship, and contributed to the “Boss” winning the UAE League and the Professional League Cup.
In the 2022-2023 season, he scored 8 goals and provided 9 assists to his teammates, but the “Al Ain” star rose in his numbers during the 2023-2024 season, after coach Hernan Crespo changed his position from winger to center forward.
In his new position, the Moroccan international scored 7 goals and made 2 assists in the league, and topped the scorers’ list in the AFC Champions League with 13 goals and 3 assists.
After 3 years in Abu Dhabi, he contributed to Al Ain winning its third AFC Champions League title, which had been absent from its treasury since 2003.
He scored crucial goals in the competition, and succeeded in shaking the nets of Asian giants, most notably a brace against Saudi Al-Nassr, led by its Portuguese star. Cristiano Ronaldo.
“When I was young and playing football, Crespo was the player I chose to look up to,” Sofiane said, adding, “I never expected that I would meet him and that one day he would be my coach.”
In the midst of his brilliance, he stated, “I had ambitions to reach the top of the game as a player, but I did not expect to be the distinguished player,” and he confirms that the secret to that was “through hard work, thanks to the prayers of my father, and then first and last with the support of God.”
Sofiane Rahimi was chosen as the best player in the UAE local league during the years 2022 and 2023, both at the official level and through fans’ votes.
With the Moroccan national team
Rahimi entered the Atlas Lions’ calculations when he caught the attention of former Moroccan coach, Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic, who expressed his admiration for the player’s offensive capabilities and invited him to participate in a training camp and in a match with the Central African Republic in the competitions. African Cup of Nations.
Rahimi was also the hero of the Moroccan national team’s journey to win the African Nations Championship in 2020 in Cameroon, finishing the tournament as the best player and top scorer with 5 goals.
Sofiane remembers the words of former Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o, when he told him: “Keep working hard, you are the future of football in Africa.”
It was a popular demand for him to be with the “Atlas Lions”, but he remained out of the coach’s squad. Walid Regragui For competitions World Cup in Qatar 2022 and the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
After nearly two years of absence, Rahimi returned to the Moroccan national team last March to play two matches against Angola and Mauritania.
Against Angola, he led Morocco to a 1-0 victory after creating the only goal, which was scored by the opponent’s player David Carmo into his own net.
When he was selected as an under-age player after Real Madrid star Brahim Diaz was unable to participate, the 28-year-old Moroccan striker donned the mantle of a hero, setting several records in his first appearance in the tournament. Olympiad With his national team in Paris 2024.
Rahimi contributed to Morocco achieving its first bronze medal in its history in these competitions, and was the tournament’s top scorer with eight goals, and he was also the most contributing player in goals.
He has played 26 international matches for the Atlas Lions since 2020, and his market value jumped from six million euros to eight million euros after his participation in the Olympics, according to the global website “Transfer Market”, and it is likely to exceed the 10 million euro barrier, according to several reports.
Record numbers
- The historical top scorer for the Moroccan national team in the Olympics, surpassing his compatriot Ahmed Faras, who has 3 goals, which he scored in the 1972 Munich edition.
- The first Arab and African player to win the Olympic top scorer award.
- The first to score goals against teams from 5 different continents in a single edition, in the history of the Olympics over 124 years.
- He equalled a 59-year-old record held by Egyptian Ibrahim Riad, who scored 8 goals in the 1964 Tokyo tournament.
- The Sofascore website, which specializes in numbers and statistics, chose him in the ideal lineup for the first round of the Olympics, after his brilliance against Argentina.
- He has won the most penalties in the 2024 Olympics (four) and achieved a rare record by scoring two doubles against two different teams.
- The first Moroccan player in history to win the AFC Champions League title.
- The player who scored the most goals in a single edition of the AFC Champions League, tied with Brazilian Muriqui (Guangzhou Evergrande, 2013), Adriano (FC Seoul, 2016), and Algerian Baghdad Bounedjah (Al-Sadd, 2018).
Championships and titles
Rahimi has so far won 10 titles in his football career, in both the Moroccan and Emirati leagues, and with the Moroccan national team:
- Two titles with the Moroccan national team: He won the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and the African Nations Championship title in 2020.
- 5 continental titles with Raja: Moroccan League (2020), African Confederation Cup in 2018 and 2021, African Super Cup (2019), Arab Club Cup (2020).
- 4 titles with Al Ain FC: UAE Pro League (2022), Pro League Cup 2022, AFC Champions League 2024.
Most notable individual titles
- Top scorer at the Paris 2024 Olympics (8 goals).
- Best player and top scorer of the African Nations Championship 2020 (5 goals).
- Best player in the CAF Confederation Cup final in 2018 and 2021.
- Best player in the Moroccan League in 2020 and 2021.
- Best Player in the UAE League by the Fans Association twice in 2022 and 2023.
- Best Player in AFC Champions League 2024.
