Karim El Ahmadi can be seen regularly as an analyst after his playing career ESPN and the NOS. The 38-year-old former midfielder of Feyenoord, FC Twente and Aston Villa is now used to his new role in football. In conversation with Football International says El Ahmadi that he found it difficult at the beginning to suddenly talk about former teammates. Especially in the case of Ajax player Steven Berghuis and Feyenoord captain Orkun Kökçü.
El Ahmadi found it difficult to analyze his ex-colleagues live on television, he says frankly. “I found that difficult at the beginning, but I am not someone who finishes players. It is normal that if someone has played a bad game, you mention that too. Otherwise you should not choose to become an analyst. But sometimes people are also critical for the sake of being critical. Because other people want to hear that.” Especially with Berghuis and Kökçü, El Ahmadi had difficulty with it in the beginning, he reveals when asked. “I played with that for a long time.”
El Ahmadi and Berghuis played together at Feyenoord between 2016 and 2018.
Nevertheless, El Ahmadi has now got over it. “If they play well, it’s nice to say, but if it’s less, you can just say that, I think. But that can also be done with respect and I think I do. I grow into it and I don’t think it’s a problem either. It is not the case that I get messages from players asking what I have said now.” With Berghuis, El Ahmadi won, among other things, the national title and TOTO KNVB Cup in the service of Feyenoord.
El Ahmadi concludes that players should not be too concerned with criticism. “When I was much younger, I really followed everything in the media. But at some point I left that behind. I have to say honestly that if players say that criticism doesn’t do anything for them, they’re not being completely honest. I don’t believe in that. But as a player you just have to deal with it properly. Everyone has an opinion. After a while it even started to motivate me more. Then I took it to competitions.”