Top 50 Middle East footballers
A look at the best players from the region making their mark across the globe
The National’s Top 50 male footballers from the Mena region is, like any list, based on some subjective assessments. But besides listening to coaches familiar with the relevant players and teams, to other players’ - past and present - judgements and using our own direct reporting of matches, we are guided by some key criteria:
On the list are solely players eligible to represent a Mena country affiliated to the AFC or CAF, Fifa’s Asian and African confederations.
Form and achievements are important, with an emphasis on the last year and season, a significant period in that it included an Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations, featured a Mena club winning the Asian Champions League and coincided with the rise in global profile of Saudi Arabia’s Pro League. It was also a year where the elite club competitions of Europe, from the Uefa Champions League to La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1, were won with decisive contributions from Mena players.
The impact an individual player has had on the teams - club or national - he represents is deemed important, as is the level of competition a player is involved in. We have included, with each entry, the player's ‘market value’ according to transfermarkt.com, whose database analyses trends in global player transfers. Their price index has not shaped our assessments but it does provide a useful indication of how important a footballer’s age, position and, above all, which leagues he has played in tends to influence his perceived transfer value.
50. Ibrahim Maza
Age: 19
Club: Hertha Berlin (Germany)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €12m*
One for the future, although given that, before he turned 19 in November, Maza had already been capped by Algeria’s senior national team and excited transfer interest from leading clubs in England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and from high up the German Bundesliga, the precious breakthrough is well under way. A skilful, confident attacking midfielder, Maza needs the Hertha Berlin he grew up at to bounce back from the second tier of German football fast if they expect to keep him.
*According to transfermarkt.com
49. Mohamed Abdelrahman
Age: 31
Club: Al Hilal Club (Sudan)
National team: Sudan
Transfer value: €100k
Sudan will be going to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations - no small feat for a country torn apart by conflict, one whose national team cannot play ‘home’ matches at home and whose best clubs have become nomads too. The player who did as much as anyone to get Sudan’s itinerants through Afcon qualifying was striker Abdelrahman. He’s industrious, with the pace to go past defenders and a fine scoring record for his country and for Al Hilal, who he has led impressively.
48. Ahmed Sayed ‘Zizo’
Age: 28
Club: Zamalek (Egypt)
National team: Egypt
Transfer value: €4m
The winger was pivotal in guiding Zamalek to their CAF Confederations Cup triumph in 2023-24, scoring four goals en route to the final and setting up another six for colleagues, including the assists in both legs of a taut final against RS Berkane. A worldly footballer, thanks to his stints in Portugal and Belgium as a young player, he’s since become a go-to match-winner for Zamalek, the Cairo giants, and a trusted member of the Egypt national team’s set-up.
47. Khalid Eisa
Age: 35
Club: Al Ain
National team: UAE
Transfer value: €350k
The goalkeeper’s astonishing reflex save, whipping up his right hand to keep out a close-range Cristiano Ronaldo shot will forever be a cherished souvenir of Al Ain’s journey to their unexpected Asian Champions League triumph. Ronaldo’s Al Nassr could not find a way past Eisa in Abu Dhabi, and he would be decisive in the penalty shoot-out at the end of that quarter-final. Light on his feet and agile, he’s lately proved a strong captain of his national team.
46. Abdel Abqar
Age: 25
Club: Alaves (Spain)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €7.5m
A graduate of Morocco’s esteemed Mohammed VI Football Academy, Abqar made steady progress up the divisions of Spanish professional football from his late teens before emerging as a truly special talent when he helped Alaves to promotion to La Liga’s top division. Mobile and strong in the air, he is a central defender astute at anticipating attacking threats, and who is increasingly courted by bigger clubs than Alaves.
45. Omar Khribin
Age: 30
Club: Al Wahda, UAE
National team: Syria
Transfer value: €5m
The 2017 Asian Footballer of the Year - a historic landmark for a Syrian player - has been a consistently effective goalscorer almost wherever he has taken his club career. A serial league champion with Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia, he won the UAE title while with Al Shabab and, now into his 30s, continues to set standards in front of goal at Al Wahda. He made history for his country this year by scoring the late goal that delivered a first-ever place in the knockout phase of an Asian Cup.
44. Ayoub El Kaabi
Age: 31
Club: Olympiakos (Greece)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €5m
A magical 2024 for the much-travelled striker, who collected a major international club title when Olympiakos won the Uefa Europa Conference League. El Kaabi was the campaign’s totem, netting 15 goals, including five across the two legs of a semi-final against Aston Villa that put the Greek club in the final. For El Kaabi, it meant some compensation for having missed out on Morocco’s squad for their historic 2022 World Cup. He’s now back featuring for his country.
43. Aymen Hussein
Age: 28
Club: Al Khor (Qatar)
National team: Iraq
Transfer value €650k
The striker has endured many hardships on the way to the top of his sport, weathered professional scepticism about a static interpretation of the centre-forward role; his club career has hopscotched around the Mena region - Iraq, Tunisia, UAE, Morocco, Qatar - but for the national team, he is an icon. Thanks to his brace of goals, Iraq registered a famous victory over Japan at the 2023 Asian Cup and he’s barely stopped scoring for his country for the 12 months since.
42. Amir Richardson
Age: 22
Club: Fiorentina, Italy
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €9m
An Olympic bronze medal, with Morocco’s men’s team, capped an eventful summer for the tall midfielder. In August he confirmed his transfer from Reims, in France, to Fiorentina of Serie A, helping the Tuscan club to a brilliant run of autumn form. Richardson is part of a sporting dynasty: Father, Michael Ray Richardson, was a star US basketball player; his mother, whose Moroccan heritage he has followed in his international career, was also a talented athlete.
41. Yazan Al Naimat
Age: 25
Club: Al Arabi (Qatar)
National team: Jordan
Transfer value: €1.6m
Jordan’s stirring, unprecedented surge to the final of this year’s Asian Cup had many authors, but none as conspicuous as striker Yazan Al Naimat. His goals against South Korea pushed his country beyond the group phase and through their first-ever semi-final. His strike set up the knockout of Iraq at the last 16. He also equalised in the narrow final loss to Qatar. His international form since has proved this was no one-month wonder.
40. Mohamed El Shenawy
Age: 36
Club: Al Ahly (Egypt)
National team: Egypt
Transfer value: €1.8m
A big clue to why Al Ahly are so serially successful in the African Champions League: It’s all those clean-sheet shut-outs. Goalkeeper El Shenawy has been responsible for a great many - 78 career games in CAF’s premier competition, 45 of them without conceding. Though he missed the later stages of last season’s Champions Cup triumph, the tall, agile goalkeeper has instilled his good habits in his deputies through his epic, multi-honoured 10 seasons at the club.
39. Fabio Lima
Age: 31
Club: Al Wasl (UAE)
National team: UAE
Transfer value: €7m
It’s a decade since Fabio Lima left his native Brazil for Dubai. Few footballers have made such a lasting impact on the game in the UAE. His goals pushed Al Wasl to the league title last season and the versatile, diminutive attacking midfielder has rediscovered, in style, the assured finishing that marked the beginning of his international career - he gained Emirati citizenship in 2020 - not least in his four-goal blitz in November’s 5-0 win over Qatar.
38. Oussama Idrissi
Age: 28
Club: Pachuca (Mexico)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €7m
One of the Mena region’s more intrepid footballers, Idrissi signed for the Mexican club Pachuca in 2023 after an unsettled spell at Spain’s Sevilla. He thrived, delighting fans with his nimble, purposeful dribbling from the left flank and some scorching goals. Major medals followed, including a gold in the Concacaf - North and Central America - Champions League, which took Idrissi to the 2024 Intercontinental Cup in Doha. There he graced a surprise victory over Botafogo with a wonderful solo strike.
37. Sardar Azmoun
Age: 29
Club: Shabab Al Ahli (UAE)
National team: Iran
Transfer value: €8m
“The kind of player I love,” said Jose Mourinho of Azmoun during the Iranian’s time at Mourinho’s Roma. At Bayer Leverkusen, he was less to the taste of coach Xabi Alonso, their disagreements leading the much-travelled striker back to the Gulf, and Shabab Al Ahli, after 11 years taking his penalty-box savvy, aerial ability and hard graft to clubs in Russia, Germany and Italy. Class like Azmoun’s knows no borders: He has 15 goals in 18 games already for his latest team.
36. Moatasem Al Musrati
Age: 28
Club: Besiktas (Turkey)
National team: Libya
Transfer value: €13m
Earlier this year, Istanbul giants Besiktas made Libya’s finest current footballer the most expensive purchase in the club’s history when they signed him from Portugal’s Braga. Four months later, with the winning goal in the 94th minute of the domestic cup final, he repaid some of that faith. Finishing, though, is not Al Musrati’s principal job. He’s a robust, authoritative but mobile central midfielder, who matches his ball-winning ability with assured distribution.
35. Mousa Al Tamari
Age: 27
Club: Montpellier (France)
National team: Jordan
Transfer value: €8m
The pioneer of Jordanian football, Al Tamari has criss-crossed Europe: A prodigy in Cyprus, eye-catching creator and dribbler in Belgium and now perhaps the best hope Montpellier, where he is in his second season, have of preserving their status in France’s Ligue 1. A year that began with Al Tamari, blessed with speed and deft close control, helping Jordan to a historic Asian Cup final is ending with challenges for his relegation-threatened club.
34. Said Benrahma
Age: 29
Club: Lyon (France)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €15m
A key member of the team that won England’s West Ham United its first major trophy - the 2022-23 Europa Conference League - in 40 years, the maverick winger tends to win over the affections of spectators more easily than the trust of certain coaches. Benrahma taking on an opposing full-back is a thrilling sight but he’s sometimes drawn criticism for inconsistency. He’s now back in favour with the Algeria national side after a clash with former manager Djamel Belmadi.
33. Wessam Abou Ali
Age: 25
Club: Al Ahly (Egypt)
National team: Palestine
Transfer value: €3m
A sensational 12 months has taken the striker from the low-profile Swedish league to star status at the most followed club in the Mena region. Abou Ali joined Al Ahly in January and, in just half a season, he finished as the Egyptian Premier League’s top goalscorer for all of 2023-24. He contributed vitally to the successful CAF Champions League triumph, too, and has established himself as a leader of the forward line for Palestine.
32. Chadi Riad
Age: 21
Club: Crystal Palace (England)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €15m
A defender of huge potential, Chadi Riad has had to be patient in testing his accomplished all-round game in the physically demanding English Premier League. He moved from Barcelona to Crystal Palace in July, but suffered a knee injury immediately after his debut. The recovery has been complicated. But there’s every expectation his strength in duels, his careful use of the ball and the maturity he showed last season on loan at Real Betis will fit well in English football.
31. Firas Al-Buraikan
Age: 24
Club: Al Ahli (Saudi Arabia)
National team: Saudi Arabia
Transfer value: €6m
Seen as the future superstar of Saudi Arabian football since he was a teenager, the lavishly-skilled forward has passed one big test in his early 20s that has proved taxing to many compatriots - he’s held his place in the hierarchy at a leading Pro League club in the face of competition from elite foreign talent. Al Ahli’s leading scorer in 2023-24, he remains a key part of their creative thrust. He’ll be looking, like many of his national team colleagues, for better impact for his country in 2025.
30. Mohamed Abdelmonem
Age: 25
Club: Nice (France)
National team: Egypt
Transfer value: €4m
A central defender who exudes calm authority. Tough in his man-to-man confrontations, comfortable on the ball, Abdelmonem came through the youth system at Al Ahly and spent four garlanded years with the senior team, winning two CAF Champions League titles as well as a series of domestic medals. Keen to test himself in Europe, the Egypt international joined Nice. Judgement on his success there will be made at the end of this, his first season in France.
29. Saud Abdulhamid
Age: 25
Club: Roma (Italy)
National team: Saudi Arabia
Transfer value: €4m
A piece of history was made this month: A star from Saudi Arabia, which exports very few players to elite foreign leagues, put himself on the scoresheet for a major European club. The super-quick attacking right-back Abdulhamid’s move from Al Hilal to Roma in the summer was pioneering, his opportunities to make an early impact limited by the Italian club’s frequent changes of manager. But his excellent, goalscoring Europa League show against Braga carries much promise.
28. Houssem Aouar
Age: 26
Club: Al Ittihad (Saudi Arabia)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €10m
Four years after he made such a sparkling impression on the later stages of the Uefa Champions League, not least in his Lyon’s eliminating Manchester City, Aouar has grown into an accomplished creative midfielder, via spells at Roma and as a leading light in the Saudi Arabia Pro League. Born in France, he won a senior cap for Les Bleus, but chose to represent Algeria, his goals a feature of the Desert Foxes’ uptick after a disappointing last Africa Cup of Nations.
27. Ellyes Skhiri
Age: 29
Club: Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
National team: Tunisia
Transfer value: €11m
A tall, imposing central midfielder, Skhiri is the kind of man marker opponents never feel they have truly escaped. Within the German Bundesliga, where he has played for the last five and half years, his deep reserves of energy and stamina are famous - in his final season at Cologne, he ran more kilometres than any other player in the division. At a young Eintracht Frankfurt, where he moved in 2023 - as for Tunisia - Skhiri has become a trusted leader.
26. Azzedine Ounahi
Age: 24
Club: Panathinaikos (Greece)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €12m
One of the revelations of the Qatar World Cup, Ounahi’s driving performances in Morocco’s midfield en route to the semi-finals put him on an accelerated trajectory. He left Angers, then heading for relegation from France’s Ligue 1, to join heavyweights Marseille. Injuries interrupted his momentum and, still only 24, he now finds himself at a crossroads, still trusted by Morocco but hoping, on loan at Panathinaikos, to be as vital for a club side as for his country.
25. Abde Ezzalzouli
Age: 23
Club: Real Betis (Spain)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €12m
Captain of the Morocco who won last year’s under-23 Africa Cup of Nations and part of the Olympic bronze medal side at the Paris Games, Abde was also involved in the Atlas Lions’ 2022 World Cup adventure, included for the zest he brings to the flanks. Having begun his top division club career at Barcelona in his teens, he helped Osasuna to a Copa del Rey final before settling at Real Betis, establishing himself as a fans’ favourite at a club with a fine tradition of dashing wingers.
24. Ismael Bennacer
Age: 27
Club: AC Milan (Italy)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €18m
Player of the Tournament when Algeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, Bennacer has proved a hard man to replace, a measure of how this all-round midfielder lends balance to his teams but also a sign of how often injury has restricted his rise. His country missed him when he was ruled out of the last two group games of Algeria’s limp Afcon in January. AC Milan have been counting the days since September’s calf injury disrupted their plans. He needs some better luck.
23. Salem Al Dawsari
Age: 33
Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
National team: Saudi Arabia
Transfer value: €1.8m
An icon of Saudi Arabian football, a direct winger who rises to the big occasion. Famously, he did so against Argentina at the 2022 World Cup, jinking past challenges and thumping in the winning goal of the 2-1 victory over the eventual champions. For Al Hilal, where he has won two Asian Champions League titles, the influx of star foreign talent to the club and the Pro League has been a stimulant, Al Dawsari upping his output of goals as standards around him have risen.
22. Soufiane Rahimi
Age: 28
Club: Al Ain (UAE)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €8m
The standout star of two major competitions in 2024, Rahimi spearheaded Al Ain’s against-the-odds triumph in the Asian Champions League, netting 13 goals, nine of them across the knockout phase and final. He then led Morocco’s run to the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, with eight goals there. A striker who can thrive anywhere in the forward line, he grew up with football, his childhood home on the premises of Raja Casablanca, where his father worked on the support staff.
21. Hakim Ziyech
Age: 31
Club: Galatasaray (Turkey)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €7m
The magical left foot of Hakim Ziyech has had more productive years than this one, and, not for the first time in his career, he is seeking a change of club in the winter transfer window. His 18 months at Galatasaray have been more frustrating than fulfilling but for the former Uefa Champions League winner - while at Chelsea - there will always be a market. At his best, as he has been many times for Morocco, he is a visionary creator of chances and of spectacular goals.
20. Amine Gouiri
Age: 24
Club: Rennes (France)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €20m
Four goals in six Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers this autumn suggest that, in Amine Gouiri, Algeria have a striker to treasure. They have had to wait for him. Born in France, he consistently starred for his native country’s youth teams before making the switch to the land of his heritage. Incisive from the flanks or as central striker, a fit Gouiri can slice through defences. Witness his marvellous solo goal, after a slalom past five opponents, at Paris Saint-Germain last season.
19. Bilal El Khannouss
Age: 20
Club: Leicester City (England)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €30m
A series of taxing auditions have confronted the talented young playmaker this year. A first major tournament for Morocco, where he had a marginal role in a poor Africa Cup of Nations campaign; an Olympics, where he shone and left with a bronze medal. A move to the English Premier League, where, at struggling Leicester City, he has two different managers to try to impress. The new one, Ruud van Nistelrooy, seems to like El Khannous, a footballer of bewitching skill and huge potential.
18. Mohamed Amoura
Age: 24
Club: Wolfsburg (Germany)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €16m
His eye-catching speed, his balance from a low centre of gravity and a willingness to improvise set Amoura apart. Those qualities persuaded Wolfsburg of Germany to prise him away from Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise in the summer. The striker from Tahir has been an instant hit: Five assists in his first four games in the Bundesliga, 13 goal-involvements in his first 13. He’s becoming a key figure of Algeria’s renewal after their disappointing last African Cup of Nations.
17. Nayef Aguerd
Age: 28
Club: Real Sociedad (Spain)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €35m
Tall, strong in the air, pacey in the chase, Aguerd has been a pillar of Morocco’s rising status in the world game. He had a storied World Cup in Qatar, battling injury and illness to strengthen the team’s formidable defence and his alliance with national manager Walid Regragui stretches back to the defender’s early days playing in Rabat. He’s gained wide experience since, in France, the English Premier League and, since August, at La Liga’s ambitious Real Sociedad.
16. Ismael Saibari
Age: 23
Club: PSV (Netherlands)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €16m
PSV Eindhoven went into their mid-season winter break top of the Dutch Eredivisie, with their midfield prompter Ismael Saibari the division’s leading provider of assists. He’s scored in his last two internationals, too. So he’s come a long way since being rejected as a teeanger by Belgium’s Anderlecht for not being slender enough. He would go on to learn that a powerful upper body is actually a perfect complement to Saibari’s excellent close control.
15. Akram Afif
Age: 28
Club: Al Sadd (Qatar)
National team: Qatar
Transfer value: €6m
The reigning Asian Footballer of the Year - the second time he has collected the honour - Afif was the lodestar of the Qatar team who, back in February, successfully defended their Asian Cup title. The son of distinguished player and coach, Hassan Afif, Akram has made good on the soaring predictions made about him when he was a prodigiously gifted teenager. Sharp in front of goal and a fine creator of opportunities for others.
14. Mehdi Taremi
Age: 32
Club: Inter Milan (Italy)
National team: Iran
Transfer value: €10m
Time will tell if Taremi’s biggest career move, to Italian champions Inter, was a wise one. The early months have sometimes been difficult for a centre-forward held in high esteem in Europe and across the Middle East. Taremi, hardworking and strong with his back to goal as well as playing off the shoulder of defenders, moved to Italy from Porto, where he was twice the Portuguese league’s top scorer. For Iran, for whom he recently reached 50 senior goals - from 90 caps - he remains totemic.
13. Sofyan Amrabat
Age: 28
Club: Fenerbahce (Turkey)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €22m
For much of his professional life, the younger of the Amrabat brothers was the less well known. Nordin, a little older, used to make the headlines with his flashy attacking game. Sofyan, who has an equally assured first touch but a more robust style, would do the unglamorous work. Steadily, over the last 10 years in five different European leagues, including Italy and England, he’s become recognised as the family’s real star, an outstanding, tireless central midfielder.
12. Ramy Bensebaini
Age: 29
Club: Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €7m
Might Borussia Dortmund have fared better in June’s Uefa Champions League final had their first choice left-back been fit? Within the German club, who conceded late Real Madrid goals via a header and carelessness with the ball on the left, they’ll forever wonder if the Algerian, strong in the air, masterly at full-back, might have made a difference - especially as Bensebaini, a graduate of the fabled Paradou academy in Algiers, has been so outstanding since recovering fitness.
11. Youssef En-Nesyri
Age: 27
Club: Fenerbahce (Turkey)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €22m
A centre-forward of big leaps and big occasions. En-Nesyri became an enduring national hero for the towering headed goal that defeated Portugal at the 2022 World Cup and gave the tournament its first ever Arab and African semi-finalist. He’s been a history-maker at Sevilla, where he spent four and half seasons, thanks to vital goals on the way to victorious Europa League finals. His leadership of the line, as target man and adept counter-attacker, remains vital for his country.
10. Rayan Ait-Nouri
Age: 23
Club: Wolves (England)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €35m
Sometimes the best gauge of a player’s credentials is in how they fare in a struggling team. As Wolves endure a tough English Premier League season, a chief source of optimism is their adventurous left-back. Ait-Nouri, while not always disguising his frustrations, is consistently among the most daring, successful dribblers in his sport’s most competitive domestic league. A player with a winger’s instincts, a defender’s feistiness and a very bright future.
9. Eliesse Ben Seghir
Age: 19
Club: Monaco (France)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €18m
Ben Seghir will not turn 20 until February. His teenage years have whizzed him past prodigious landmarks: a senior Monaco debut at 17; a match-winning assist, on his 18th birthday, in stoppage time of his first European knockout tie; a first Champions League goal at 19, part of this season’s 11 goal-involvements from 23 games. A nimble, purposeful striker, he says of his international career, “The brakes are off with Morocco.” Too true: His first six competitive caps yielded three goals.
8. Riyad Mahrez
Age: 33
Club: Al Ahli (Saudi Arabia)
National team: Algeria
Transfer value: €12m
Symptoms of decline have been frequently diagnosed these last 18 months in one of the most decorated footballers of his generation - especially after Algeria’s limp Africa Cup of Nations. But the player who, since joining Al Ahli has registered 19 goals and directly set-up another 21 - in 53 matches - is still, recognisably, the wizard who won it all at Manchester City and inspired two of the great triumphs of the century, Leicester City’s 2016 Premier League and his country’s 2019 Afcon.
7. Amine Adli
Age: 24
Club: Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €30m
Forty-three matches undefeated in Germany; 51 games all told without a single loss. Amine Adli’s extraordinary 2023-24 with Bayer Leverkusen set records and earned a Bundesliga and Cup Double in the land where Bayern Munich usually dominate. The Moroccan winger played a big part in Leverkusen’s fast-breaking gameplan, logging the best shots-on-target percentage in his league. Injured since October, he’ll be back in the new year, aiming to restore his club’s invincibility.
6. Yassine Bounou ‘Bono’
Age: 33
Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €9m
A talisman for his national team, Morocco, for a number of years, Bono made a series of stunning saves when the Atlas Lions reached the semi-final of the 2022 World Cup. The goalkeeper left Sevilla in 2023 after four years and two Europa League titles with a cherished place in the hearts of supporters. Sevilla have badly missed him, watching on as his shot-stopping agility and his authority organising defences brought a glut of further trophies at Al Hilal.
5. Noussair Mazraoui
Age: 27
Club: Manchester United (England)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €30m
It’s not easy joining Manchester United in their perpetual state of flux, of strategic doubt and general confusion. Of all the players who signed for the Premier League’s troubled giants in the summer, Mazraoui, arriving from Bayern Munich, has thrived best. The former Ajax man makes intelligent runs, is a judicious tackler and a precise crosser and passer. And he’s versatile, equally adept as a full-back on the right or left of a defence or exerting his influence in midfield.
4. Brahim Diaz
Age: 25
Club: Real Madrid (Spain)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €40m
He has collected two trophies already in 2024-25. There could be another five for Brahim by the end of his season with Real Madrid, where his quick feet and eye for the right pass are valued components in the club’s rich attacking repertoire. Next December, he’s targeting a first major international prize with Morocco, Africa Cup of Nations hosts. A dual national, born in Spain, Brahim finally committed to the Atlas Lions this year, marking his first six competitive caps with six goals.
3. Omar Marmoush
Age: 25
Club: Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
National team: Egypt
Transfer value: €40m
The transition from huge potential to consistent match-winning impact has been spectacular. In his first 12 Bundesliga matches this season, Marmoush struck 13 goals. In the Europa League, he has four from six games. With his coolness in opposition penalty boxes, speed and a physical strength in the duel that has surprised many opponents, Marmoush is now coveted by Europe’s superclubs. For Egypt, he’s reassuringly young, a star for a future beyond Mohamed Salah.
2. Achraf Hakimi
Age: 26
Club: Paris Saint-Germain (France)
National team: Morocco
Transfer value: €60m
There may be no better right-back in the world than Achraf Hakimi, combative in defence, immensely creative going forward, dominant going outside and inside his markers. He has become a lodestar for Morocco, decisive in their 2022 World Cup run. He’s been a serial collector of major club prizes at Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan. At French champions Paris Saint-Germain, he’s very clearly a leader for the club’s post-Kylian Mbappe years.
1. Mohamed Salah
Age: 32
Club: Liverpool (England)
National team: Egypt
Transfer value: Free at end of season
Who dares put a ceiling on the heights Mohamed Salah can still achieve? At Liverpool, the club the Egyptian has spearheaded to some of their greatest heights, there’s fevered debate over how much to invest in renewing a contract that expires in June. On the pitch, week after week, there’s no evidence at all of Salah’s peerless qualities waning as he approaches his mid-30s. He’s still lightning fast, a ruthless finisher and well on course for more major prizes in 2025.
Photographs: AFP; Al Hilal S.C; Al Wahda FC; Chris Whiteoak / The National; Getty Images; EPA; Reuters; Shabab AlAhli Dubai FC
Words: Ian Hawkey
Editors: Gareth Cox and Ajit Vijaykumar
Picture editor: Olive Obina
Design: Nick Donaldson
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