Former Anderlecht Prodigy Seeks Redemption: El Kababri’s Fall from Kompany’s Favor to Unemployment

El Kababri was a starter for the match against Ostende (1-2) on July 28, 2019 at the Lotto Park. It was the first professional match for this young prodigy from Neerpede who was only 19 years old, and the first for Vincent Kompany, as a player-coach. But unfortunately, this will be the only match played by the young Brussels native at Anderlecht. "An unforgettable moment for me. I had arrived in the U11s at Anderlecht, I am a child of the house. During the preparation, I had been the most used player and Vincent Kompany launched me directly. He had liked my qualities and my mentality. The first thing he said in the locker room when he arrived was that age meant nothing. That was his most important rule: the best would play," he confides to La Dernière Heure.

The young player was not a starter for the second match, in Mouscron. "People didn’t know, but I had a serious injury the day before this trip to Mouscron. I was going to be a starter again but contact with Hendrik Van Crombrugge in the last training session changed everything. I got up with a big crack in my knee. It was Vincent Kompany himself who carried me to the physio’s office. I was out for four months," he explains. Upon his return from injury, "the coach had changed. Frankie Vercauteren had taken over and he needed results. So the young players had fewer opportunities to express themselves. He was a very good coach."

And he continues: "But there are also other problems. I was coming to the end of my contract at the end of the 2019-2020 season. Anderlecht had made me an offer to extend but my agent at the time preferred to refuse the offer. It was a big mistake, but I didn’t know it at the time. I trusted him and I was naive. Neither my parents nor I knew the football business. I don’t want to mention the name of this manager or his agency, but I should never have listened to him." Finally, he signed with Borussia Dortmund in January 2020, but with the Covid-19 crisis, he did not play a single match for the German club. Thanks to his agent, he joined Lierse on loan.

In the summer of 2021, at the end of his loan contract with Lierse, El Babakri finds himself without a club. "Yes, I had left all the cards in the hands of the agent and this person disappeared at that time. No more news, nothing..." A situation of unemployment that will last a year and a half. In the winter transfer window of 2023, a Greek second division club, Zakynthos, recruits him. "It did me good and I finished in the team of the year after only 6 months there. My first pro matches since that famous encounter with Kompany. Unfortunately, the salaries were not paid. I received offers from other clubs in Greece, but I was afraid of having the same problems. I came back to Belgium but without a club, again," he explains.

He will add: "Fortunately, I met Philippe de Liederkerke. He had just invented Ifreq, a technical, tactical and physical test for footballers that creates a sort of card with points. And then, recruitment days are organized in Waterloo by clubs via these cards." In February 2025, he was spotted by Castellon, a Spanish second division club. "I went there and they liked my profile. Unfortunately, the club had financial problems and no longer had the authorization to affiliate new players... I preferred to come back to Belgium." After three years without a club, El Babakri "hopes that a club will give me a chance again. I’m only 25 and I still want to play for 15 years. It also benefits my little brother Zakaria. He’s 18 and he’s a prospect at RWDM. I give him advice to avoid falling into the same traps as me."