Moroccan Playmaker Sofiane Boufal: From Angers to International Stardom

"He was frail, but he did things with the ball that no one else could do," recalls Stéphane Moulin, reserve team coach at SCO Angers, after Boufal moved up to Ligue 1. "I insisted that the club keep him, because I saw so many qualities in this boy that his size was not going to be a problem. He was a little phenomenon with an extraordinary individual technical mastery that allowed him to do whatever he wanted with the ball. A magician who had the talent to go to the biggest clubs in the world." On September 3, the Parisian-born player joined Union Saint Gilloise for a period of two seasons.

Trained at Angers SCO, Boufal joined the first team, then playing in Ligue 2, in the summer of 2013. His talent impressed. However, he had not been able to be decisive (0 goal, 2 assists). "He still had a physical delay that forced him to work harder," continues Stéphane Moulin, then promoted to head of the first team. In his second season, he had six fabulous months. I remember a goal he scored against Dijon where he danced like a carnival with five opponents before scoring. On a trip to Orléans, we were trailing 2-0 and we finally won 2-3 with a Boufal masterclass. His confidence, coupled with his recklessness, pushed him to try a sixth dribble when he had missed five just before." Boufal still managed to make an impression. "He had the ability to win a game on his own," recalls journalist Gildas Crozon who followed him in his early professional days. "He was an elusive player who had learned to dribble in futsal matches with his friends, where the goal was to succeed in a dribble rather than score a goal. But that could also push him to have that individualistic temptation with Angers."

Thanks to his big half-season, he joined Ligue 1 and Lille for 3 million euros. A nice progression for the Angers kid. "His disruptive play quickly appealed to the Lille leaders," comments Joël Domenighetti who follows Lille for L’Équipe. "He had the ability to eliminate several opponents in small perimeters thanks to rare gestures and the ability to take depth through his accelerations. Like all talented players, he sometimes had to be shaken up, because the bar was set quite high. A comparison with Eden Hazard? Impossible, Eden was a world-class player without equivalent at Lille. They are both talented, explosive and have a rather fluid gestural but Sofiane’s problem was his lack of consistency."

To read: Morocco’s Boufal Reflects on World Cup Victory That Left Ronaldo in Tears

Transferred to Southampton FC in the Premier League, Boufal reached the final of the English League Cup in 2017. The harvest of his first season is however meager: only one goal scored. "He is a talented player like Hazard or Messi," his coach Claude Puel said at the time. "He has the same special side as Ben Arfa, but we have to be patient with him, because he is still young." He is then loaned for a season to Celta de Vigo. "He brought joy to our matches," recalls his former Vigo teammate Dennis Eckert Ayensa, who moved this summer from the Union to Standard. "He often asked for the ball to be able to make the difference with the ball. He was important in our fight for survival, because he could bring danger at any time. He’s the kind of player people go to the stadium for."

Boufal returns to Southampton FC for a season, as Celta did not exercise the 17 million euro purchase option. He scores five goals and provides five assists in 84 games. In 2020, he signs his return to Angers SCO for four seasons. As the 2022 Qatar World Cup approaches, the Moroccan player is not very offensive in club. During the World Cup, he shines with the Moroccan national team, which reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time in its history. The Atlas Lions beat great football nations like Belgium. "Some in Angers were surprised to see him make defensive efforts with his national team that he did not make in the club," smiles Thomas Doucet about Boufal. After the tournament, his market value was very high and Angers could not keep him. Boufal takes off for Qatar and joins Al-Rayyan for 6 million euros. An inconclusive experience: he scores 4 goals, provides 2 assists in 16 games in a season and a half. An injury keeps him away from the pitch from September 2023 to May 2024.