The Eclecticism of football

Speaking of Abdenour Zrini is considering football in all its declensions. Player, referee, analyst, coach… At 25, the former Moroccan right-back has racked up countless experiences that have made him all too familiar with every nuance there is to the world’s favourite sport. An eclecticism that has presented him with Espanyol‘s uniform, collaboration with the national team and a means of living true to his passion: football.

“I lived in Morocco with my family ’til I was seven,” recalls Abdenour. “My father, who was already working in France, moved to Spain and we joined him. Football, which until then had been a simple ‘hobby’, began to play an increasingly important role in my life.”

Abdenour tried futsal, but soon found that he wasn’t keen on playing in a “closed space”. He then decided to try his luck with Badalona, where he developed a good part of his sports career. He stayed there until he reached the Cadet category (U16s) and moved to Espanyol, where he played for two years until he joined Marcet’s High-Performance Academy.

“One of the first experiences I recall was a spectacular trip to Peru, where we stayed for two weeks to play against several First Division teams. We played in amazing stadiums, it was a really nice and enriching experience, one of the best I’ve ever had as a footballer.”

“I have played many areas of football, and each experience has allowed me to see this sport from a different point of view”

Among Abdenour’s teammates were players from all over the world who had come to Marcet to try to make the leap to professional football. Among them, Pedro Arce, who recently signed for Ámerica, the most prestigious club in Mexico. Sebastián Galles triumphed as a coach when he arrived at the U de Chile and Atlas at the hands of Guillermo Hoyos.

Abdenour was reunited with another teammates at the time in Tunisia, during the final phase of the U-17 Africa Cup. In his second year at the High Performance Academy, the Moroccan defender had received the call of his National Team. When facing Cameroon during the African tournament, he saw the faces with Arthur Joël Bessong (https://marcetfootball.com/en/una-proyeccion-enorme/), another canterano Marcet who had participated in the trip in Peru and had been called to represent your country in that international championship.

During his time as a player, Abdenour was also trained as a referee. “Then there were no collegiate players, that’s why I was encouraged,” says former youth player Marcet, who, until the age of 21, was able to combine the role of referee with that of player, managing to lead Third Division matches. In this interview, he asks for respect for that category and gives some advice to parents who attend their children’s games:

Once the boots were hung, Abdenour did not abandon football. On the contrary, he began to dedicate himself to a growing number of activities related to this sport. “I worked a year as an analyst, and that allowed me to see football from a different perspective. Now I’m still in Marcet managing communication with the Catalan Federation in everything related to files and bureaucratic issues, and I’m also in charge of implementing the Matrix system coordinating the work of technicians, computer developers and translators “.

This year Abdenour has also started his career as the second coach of Juvenil A Marcet. “I have always liked that part of the work, I have played many areas of football, and each experience has allowed me to see this sport from a different point of view, I am facing this new challenge with enthusiasm”.