Dutch professional footballers can be found in all corners of the world, from the spotlights of the major European leagues to the more adventurous jobs on other continents. In the Over de Grens section, Voetbalzone speaks weekly with a player who is active outside the national borders. This time, attention is paid to Ouail el Merabet, who is experiencing his first foreign adventure after a year without a club in Bahrain.
By Chris Meijer
When Ouail el Merabet picks up the phone, he’s in the car. “No, I’m not driving in the middle of the desert”, El Merabet grins after falling away for a while. He lives in Bahrain on the coast, a ten-minute drive from the city of Galali where his club Qalali Club is located. “That’s where most expats and all foreigners live, from Russians to Americans. I have just returned to Bahrain for three days, after a short holiday in the Netherlands. Actually I couldn’t wait to go back. Everything is perfect here. The weather is great, everything is well organized and I am very well looked after. Yes, I really like it here.”
Before El Merabet knew it, he was recently on a plane to Bahrain. The 22-year-old midfielder – former youth player of AZ, ADO Den Haag and Willem II – had already been clubless for a year at that time, after most recently playing for Jong Sparta. “It was certainly a difficult period, I sat still for a year. Or well, sitting still. I haven’t played any games. But I continued to train, every day. Together with my best friend Zakaria Aboukhlal”, says El Merabet. “No, I never doubted. I have always had the holy confidence in myself. I know football: something beautiful comes along and then you have to stand there. I have done that. I honestly didn’t think for a second that I had to give up or that it wouldn’t work.”
In the meantime, offers came by. Which after three days turned out not to be as concrete as had been sketched in advance, or came from countries where El Merabet had not read or heard nice stories about. “When I read stories about salaries not being paid, I didn’t want to experience that. There must be some purpose behind it. Then you have to stand strong, have self-confidence and just refuse it. There were concrete offers and then it was up to me to decide. Of course I want to play football, but I also want the best for myself. In the Netherlands I actually had no options, even though I might have wanted to.”
Just before he was due to play futsal with friends in June, the phone rang. A Bahrain agent rang the other end of the line and before El Merabet knew it, the Qalali Club coach was added to the conversation. “Suddenly the three of us were facetime. I immediately felt so welcome. Two days later I flew to Bahrain and I have been here ever since. I didn’t have time to doubt, the choice was made so quickly,” laughs El Merabet. “I had heard through the media that this is a good competition to develop yourself and put your name on the map, and then take the next step. On the one hand I kept that in mind, but at the same time I am also with one open mind boarded. I liked it all very much. The level is good and there is a very good and tactically strong trainer, who has played for the best club in Bahrain.”
“It’s a fairly small club, very family-oriented. So maybe I didn’t have any trouble adapting, everyone was very friendly right away,” he continues. Still, the weather in Bahrain – an island nation in the Persian Gulf off the east coast of Saudi Arabia – was somewhat challenging at first. “When I arrived in June it was still about 45 degrees. I remember that during the first practice it seemed like my heart wanted to stop. Now it is around thirty degrees, which is nice. The rhythm is different here, we train every day at seven o’clock in the evening and for that you have to fill in the day yourself. Fortunately, I have a gym and a swimming pool in my apartment complex. I can often be found in the gym in the morning, then I go for a swim and in the evening we train.” El Merabet soon found out that training twice in one day was not a matter of course for his teammates.
“For example, those boys thought it was crazy if I sent a photo that I was at home in the gym in the morning. “Hey, why are you in the gym already? We still have to train!’, they would react. You just can’t do it with one workout. You have to get the most out of it. Quite a lot of guys are already participating in the level and I can give them tips”, explains El Merabet. In his own words, he was soon appointed as leader of the team, in order to take his teammates ‘a little bit into his level and the life of a professional football player’. “Even though I don’t speak Arabic. Although I am of Moroccan descent, they speak a different kind of Arabic here. I understand the football terms, but it is difficult to start a whole conversation. Fortunately, most of the boys also speak English.”
Qalali Club is active on the second level of Bahrain, which means that not all El Merabet teammates are full-pro. “It’s not that they don’t take it seriously. When I see the guys who work in the military… They are on duty from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then back on the field at 7 p.m. I think it’s amazing what they can still get out of the training. The football is nice, I don’t think the level is very low. Most of the boys can play football pretty well, we also have two internationals from Bahrain in the selection. From the first day I came here, I tried to coach those guys directly in training and the trainer was impressed. The difference is mainly tactical.”
Despite the fact that the matches in Bahrain are not crowded, El Merabet is regularly approached on the street. “There are not a thousand people in the stands. Not even a hundred. Maybe fifty or so. This is quite a small club in Bahrain, but I still get recognized quite often on the street. Then they have a chat with me and they are curious about my past, what motivated me to make the step here from Europe. I get that question very often here.” He himself can give a clear answer to this question. “I’ve talked to the coach about it and he sees a good footballer in me, so it’s now up to me to prove myself to earn the next step. It’s going well for now. It is very important for a footballer to have a step-by-step plan. A goal without a plan is a dream. I hope to eventually end up with one of the big clubs in Bahrain and then make an international transfer. For now, I can see myself staying in Bahrain for a while.”