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Extended Clip - Who Is Sofyan Amrabat? Morocco’s World Cup Sensation Wanted By Liverpool, Tottenham & PSG
995 Plays2 years ago
Nima Tavallaey and Carlo Garganese do a profile deep-dive on Sofyan Amrabat, Fiorentina's midfield sensation that has been a revelation at the FIFA World Cup for Morocco, and who is being linked with Tottenham, PSG and Liverpool.
This is an extended clip from this weeks free Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google podcasts.
To listen to ALL complete episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP and become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Introduction & Teaser
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast. It's a beautiful, beautiful story.
Best Player of the Tournament: Mbappe?
00:00:09
Speaker
But for me, the player of the tournament or the best midfielder in the tournament, I'm not sure if I'd call him the player of the tournament. I would still probably go with Mbappe for that.
Sofian Amrabat: Midfield Marvel
00:00:16
Speaker
But the best midfielder in the tournament so far, in my opinion, has been Sofia Namrabbat, the Fiorentino midfielder. So we've got a Serie A angle there.
00:00:24
Speaker
He has now been heavily linked to all the big Premier League clubs, to PSG, to Liverpool, to Tottenham. Just for those that don't know that much about him, can you just tell the listener a little bit about him?
Amrabat's Career Journey
00:00:39
Speaker
Well, Sofian Amravat, as everyone would know, is the younger brother of Noridin Amravat. He was born in the Netherlands in
00:00:54
Speaker
in Huysen, I think it's called. I'm sorry for the pronunciation. He came up at Utrecht and if I'm not mistaken, Eric Tenhag was his coach there as well. He moved to Feynord where he had kind of a breakthrough season in 2017, 2018. I think he scored the consolation goal against Napoli in a 3-1 loss.
Helas Verona & Ivan Juric's Trust
00:01:17
Speaker
And then he got his move to
00:01:22
Speaker
to Club Bruges, where he signed a four-year contract. And he was there for just the season before Helas Verona discovered him for the measly, on a loan with an option to buy, set at a measly €3.5 million.
00:01:46
Speaker
And he quickly, under Ivan Yurich, became the most important player. I remember Ivan Yurich saying in a pre-match press conference where they said if he's going to rest Amrabad, he said, no, Amrabad will play for as long as he's alive. Unless he dies, Amrabad always starts. And that's the kind of, you know, that's how quickly he became so
00:02:10
Speaker
so central and important to that Helas Verona side, who were just outstanding in the Serie A.
World Cup Defensive Heroics
00:02:16
Speaker
And then, of course, you know, he moved to Fiorentina. But if we look at, you know, some of the stats, I know you've got more detailed stats for him. But in this World Cup, I mean, I've brought up pretty much all the big names of all teams from Gavi to Pedro to Kovacic, Modric, all these guys. He's in the top five for the defensive stats in pretty much every single stat.
00:02:38
Speaker
from defensive duels per 90 minutes to successive defensive actions per 90 minutes to defensive duels percentages one, etc, etc. And he's just become an absolute pivotal player for this Morocco and how they defend. He's always in the right place at the right time and always does the right thing.
00:03:01
Speaker
It's so impressive to see him really have this incredible breakthrough at the World Cup and finally people see what, you know, people who listen to this show will know what I've been raving
Comparing Amrabat & Brozovic
00:03:12
Speaker
about for years. I absolutely love this player and I think he is a
00:03:17
Speaker
So up until this point in his career, he's been kind of a poor man's Marcelo Brozovic. He doesn't cover the same amount of space that Marcelo Brozovic does, but then again, I think that's physically biologically impossible for any human being to run as much as Marcelo Brozovic does in a football game. I think he set another world record.
00:03:36
Speaker
the other day for distance covered in one football game. But other than that, he is such an important player and what he does, which I think is one of the most overlooked aspects of his game, is the all-important long ball from deep. When Morocco or Fiorentina or Helas win the ball defensively, that all-important first ball, whether it's a long ball, high ball,
00:04:03
Speaker
that that hits it gets a teammate who then wins it up and can hold up and or or play off another player and the team gets breathing space and can move up and at the counter attack he really does those that does that really well Brozovic is a master at it but Amrabad is is just behind him there and and I think that's why what I mean that has gotten teams like Spurs who I knew were were interested in him already last January.
Transfer Drama: Spurs vs Fiorentina
00:04:28
Speaker
They tried to sign him in January.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, they were really close to signing him. They were in advanced talks. They were in advanced talks with him. It fell through. The reason it fell through was because Fiorentina decided to sell Eric Polga.