Faced with his son’s rare illness, footballer Reda Kharchouch is giving up the professional world

Reda Kharchouch, who currently plays for the Cypriot club Omonia 29is Maiou, has announced his retirement from high-level football. From next season onwards, the 30-year-old player will be committed to SJC, a fourth division Dutch club. This radical choice is dictated by the rare neurological pathology suffered by his son, who will soon be two years old, whose brain is no longer growing.

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The child’s development is stagnating at that of a three-month-old baby. "The human body contains about 20,000 genes. One of them is malicious in my son," explains the player in the columns of Algemeen Dagblad. Doctors are already comparing his condition to an early form of Alzheimer’s, as the child is already beginning to lose his memory. Faced with the impossibility of precisely identifying the defective gene, the athlete’s daily life has changed.

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The striker, who has played for Telstar, has so far been making weekly trips of 3,500 kilometers to join his family who remained in the Netherlands. Although he has received several offers to remain professional, he assures that his priority has changed: "For me, it’s really over." His current contract expires at the end of the month, marking his definitive return to his loved ones to embark on this new chapter of life.