Moroccan Soccer Star Fayçal Fajr Reveals Motivation: Mother’s Early Morning Cleaning Job

According to the Moroccan player, he had to give it his all and of course succeed in his career to allow his mother to no longer get up very early in the morning and go "wash Renault or the hospital in Rouen". "I hated seeing my mother get up at 3:30 in the morning to go wash Renault at the time or the hospital in Rouen. She was a cleaning lady and I couldn’t get home. I waited for her to leave (...) Even though I’m a football fanatic, that’s what gave me the strength to succeed," he confided.

Talking about "a fusional relationship with the one who gave him life", the player, who also has French nationality, also dwelled on the brother he never knew. The latter died a few weeks before his birth at the age of 10. "I don’t like to talk about it too much but the Moroccans know, she talked about it, then I decided to talk about it in turn. I didn’t have the chance to know my brother who died at the age of 10 a few weeks before my birth. She was pregnant with me when she lost a son. So we’ve always had a special relationship," he added.

While many Moroccan internationals have chosen the easy life and the golden retirements of the Gulf countries, Fayçal Fajr left Spain to return to Caen and thus be closer to his mother. "She’s always afraid something will happen to her son. My return to Caen is also dictated by that. My family and especially my mother needed me. After 4 years in Spain, I felt it was also time to come back to them."