Who is Abde Ezzalzouli, Barcelona's newest star?

Abed Ezzalzouli is a skilled winger with both feet, which allows him to adapt to either flank. He is characterized by always looking for the one-on-one against the defender and for being vertical. Although he is not a goal scorer, he never loses sight of the opponent's goal.

He is only 19 years old and has already played two LaLiga games for Barça under the orders of two coaches: Sergi Barjuán and Xavi Hernández.

Abde Ezzalzouli, who was born in the Moroccan town of Beni Melal, joins Barça B for the 2021/22 season from Hercules Alicante. Born on December 17, 2001, Abde began playing in the junior teams of Elche, but in the youth stage, he excelled at Hercules and made the leap to the reserve team. In the 2019/20 season, he was already a first-team player, with whom he played 22 games between the Second Division B and the Copa del Rey before signing for Barça B.

The lack of players that FC Barcelona has suffered this autumn has meant that both Koeman and Sergi Barjuán have had to look down on the second team. And so, on October 30, the coach from Les Franqueses gave his first division debut to the young African winger in the 80th minute in the league match that Barça tied at Camp Nou against Deportivo Alavés.

Three weeks later, with Xavi Hernandez in charge of the Barça team for the first time, he was given another chance, this time with the entire second half of the Barcelona derby against Espanyol.

The signing was led by former technical secretary Ramon Planes, who received good references and went to see him when Hercules played at Cornellà and Llagostera. Planes also traveled to Valencia to meet him in person. Both, his football skills and his character and personality impressed him. 

To sign him, the Blaugrana club paid the 2 million euros of his clause on August 31, the last day of the market, taking advantage of the 16 million euros that Barça earned from the sale of Ilaix Moriba to Leipzig.

"Barça was required to pay because Abde was Hercules' main asset. They had no one else. And they did it on the second to last day of the market," recalls Javier Portillo, former sporting director of the Alicante club, currently in the technical secretariat of Rayo Vallecano, and one of the most important people in Abde's sporting life.

At the age of seven, Abde landed in Spain to settle in Carrús, one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Elx. He has two older brothers. He is the youngest. He took his first steps in the world of soccer in a youth team of Segunda Regional in Elx.

That's where Portillo went looking for him. "With one game we had enough. We signed him. He was 17 years old and started on the youth team, but Antonio Moreno immediately recruited him for the reserve team. "Physically he was a kid, but he was different. He was a good one-on-one player, he faced the ball and we could see that he could make a difference," Moreno added.

With him, the Hercules reserve team won a promotion from Preferente to Tercera. "He didn't play from the start, Antonio preferred to make him come on to break up the match," says Portillo. "But he was maturing. He started as a substitute and ended up starting. Nobody has given him anything for free. He has worked hard and, regardless of the category, he always stood out," Moreno said.

Before Barça arrived, Abde aroused the interest of other clubs such as Valencia, Betis, or Almeria. But Abde wanted to stay. After achieving promotion to Tercera, Abde did the preseason with the first team to play in Segunda B. He trained under the orders of Lluís Planagumà.