Abdelaziz Barrada

Born in Provins, France in 1989 Abdelaziz Barrada played football in Spain, France, the UAE, Turkey, and Qatar, in addition to representing Morocco in international matches. Barrada began his youth career with Paris FC before making his senior début with Sénart-Moissy in 2006. For the next three years he played for Paris Saint-Germain’s reserves where he was named the club’s best youth player. In 2010 he had moved to Spain where he joined Getafe, initially as a reserve player, before making it into the starting XI. In 2013 Barrada signed for Al Jazira in the UAE Pro League but only played one season with the club before joining Marseille. He returned to the UAE in 2016, this time signing with Al-Nasr in Dubai. He played for several other clubs before ending his playing career with Lusitanos Saint-Maur in 2021 in France.

In February 2012 Barrada made his international début for Morocco in a friendly against Burkina Faso. Later that year he was named in the Moroccan squad for the football tournament at the 2012 London Olympics. At the Games he scored the opening goal in the 2–2 draw with Honduras in the group stage of the competition. The following year he played in all three of Morocco’s matches at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. During his career Barrada played in more than 250 domestic matches, scoring 38 goals, and made 26 senior appearances for Morocco, scoring a further four goals. Tragically he was only 35-years-old when he died of a heart attack in October 2024.