Hicham Zerouali

Aberdeen

After playing in his native Morocco for US Yacoub El Mansour and USP Police, Zerouali was signed by Aberdeen manager Ebbe Skovdahl from FUS de Rabat in November 1999 for a fee of £450,000, on the recommendation of the club's director of football, Keith Burkinshaw. He became the first player in the United Kingdom to wear the shirt number '0' in 2000, which was outlawed the following season by the Scottish Premier League and the Premier League in England; he switched to number 11 for the 2001–02 season. In January 2000, Zerouali scored a thirty-yard free kick in a fourth round Scottish Cup tie away to St Mirren to take the tie to a replay. Zerouali then scored in the 2–0 replay win at Pittodrie to help the club into the next round of the competition. Aberdeen reached both the 2000 Scottish League Cup Final and the 2000 Scottish Cup Final with Zerouali playing in both matches, although they ended in defeat to Celtic and Rangers respectively. In August 2000, Zerouali was injured with a broken ankle during a match against Motherwell, and subsequently missed out on a place at the Sydney Olympic Games, and was eventually out of action for a full year. In one of his more memorable outings after his return, he scored a hat-trick against Dundee.

Al-Nasr and FAR Rabat

After his contract at Aberdeen expired, Zerouali moved to play his football in the United Arab Emirates with the team Al-Nasr for a year, before returning to live in his home country of Morocco…

Zerouali won fourteen caps for the Morocco national football team and scored six goals. He featured for Morocco in the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations in Mali, and scored two goals in a 2–1 win over Burkina Faso. He also played in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was in the international squad a month before his death.