Nancy (France),
Sporting CP (Portugal), Deportivo La Coruña (Spain), Coventry
City (England), Aston Villa (England), Espanyol (Spain)
Honours
???
Biography
Moustapha Hadji (born 16 November 1971 in Ifrane, Morocco) is a
Moroccan international footballer. His brother, Youssef Hadji,
is also a Moroccan international and currently plays for Rennes
Hadji, nicknamed Mous, immigrated with his family at his early
age to France. They settled first at Saint-Etienne, then Monceau,
and finally Creutzwald. It is there that Mustapha Hadji began
playing football. He signed his first contract with AS Nancy
where he spent his first season as a youth player before joining
the senior squad in his second year with the club.
In mid 1990s, Moustapha was offered a place in the French junior
national team but decided to play for Morocco.
After playing for Nancy, Hadji joined Sporting Lisbon and then
Deportivo, but it was with Coventry City where he became well
known, especially in Britain. After an impressive 1998 World Cup,
where Hadji scoring a memorable goal against Norway, he became
much sought after, especially after being named African
Footballer of the Year in 1998. He was signed a year later by
Coventry City.
Hadji is a goal scoring attacking midfielder with great pace and
skilful runs. At Coventry, he was joined by Moroccan
international, Youssef Chippo, sparking a brief trend for City
fans to wear fezzes to games in their honour. After Coventry
were relegated in 2001, he joined Aston Villa, having scored
against them three times in the previous season. But after only
playing sporadically, he was released on a free transfer to
Español in Spain in 2004 where he remained until June 2004.
Moustapha has since played in Emirates Club in Dubai where he
remained for one year before returning and signing with
Saarbruecken FC in Germany, where he has 2 years remaining on
his contract.
