Franco-Moroccan Goalkeeper Amine Lecomte-Addani’s Unlikely Rise to Qatar National Team

Born on April 26, 1990 in Reims, this Franco-Moroccan goalkeeper has gone through many clubs before ending up in Qatar where he has been selected 18 times. Even though he is living a fabulous story with Qatar, Amine Lecomte-Addani does not forget the time spent in Reims. "When it came time to sign my first professional contract, the club wanted to loan me to Bayonne, in National. It was to toughen me up, but I felt capable of becoming the number one. I then decided to leave for Barnsley, in the English second division," he reports lunion.fr.

But Sochaux was having trouble letting him go. "At the last moment, Aziz Bouras, my former goalkeeper coach at Sochaux, advised me to join him in Qatar. During a meeting, the sports director of Lekhwiya offered me to pay me four times the amount the English had promised me. The kid from a working-class background that I am, who dreamed of buying a house for his parents, signed directly. And I bought the house for my parents," he confides.

Born in Reims to Moroccan parents, Amine Lecomte-Addani almost joined the Moroccan national team. But constraints related to his career in Qatar led him to give up. He obtained Qatari sports nationality. He will be selected 18 times, but has not been since 2016. A few months before the World Cup, he hopes to be part of the Qatari players who will be called up. "I am still eligible, even if I am no longer in the coach’s plans. I remain positive and wish them good luck."

When asked which country he will choose for the World Cup, the player seems very divided. "Ah, it’s complicated! Morocco is my heart country, the one of my parents, my childhood dream. But I am very attached to Qatar. And France, that’s my country! I think it will go the furthest," he replied.