Oussama Assaidi

Club

International

International goals

Scores and results list Morocco's goal tally first.

Early career

Assaidi was born in Beni-Boughafer, in northern Morocco, before his family moved to Amsterdam. He began his career with the AZ academy where he spent three years before leaving in 2006 to begin his professional career at Omniworld in the Eerste Divisie. After two seasons with the club from Almere, where he scored 3 goals in 36 games, he moved to De Graafschap to play in the Eredivisie, the top flight of Dutch football, in the summer of 2008. Assaidi spent just one year with the club before moving to Heerenveen on the last day of the transfer window. The move was seen as surprising because Heerenveen had said that they were not planning to buy any new players, but Assaidi's performance at the beginning of the 2009–10 Eredivisie, scoring five goals in five games, meant that an exception was made to bring Assaidi to the club.

Heerenveen

Assaidi made his Heerenveen debut in a 1–0 loss at home to arch-rivals Groningen, where he came on in the 71st minute as a substitute for Paulo Henrique. He also scored his first goal for Heerenveen in the second round of the KNVB Cup in a 7–0 away win against SDC Putten. After coming off the bench in the next three league games, Assaidi was given his first place in the starting line-up for in an away match against Willem II, which Heerenveen lost 4–1. Assaidi's first league goal for Heerenveen came in a 3–1 defeat to Heracles, which was also the first game where he played the full 90 minutes for the club. Assaidi…

Assaidi was eligible to play for both the Netherlands or Morocco. His first invitation for a senior team came in February 2011, when Morocco national team coach Eric Gerets called him up for Morocco's friendly match against Niger. Assaidi made his debut in Morocco's 4–0 win over Niger, coming on as a substitute in the 77th minute for Adel Taarabt. Since it was a friendly, however, Assaidi was still eligible to play for the Netherlands. He announced on 14 February 2011 that his choice for Morocco was definite. Assaidi scored his first Morocco goal on 4 June 2011 in a 4–0 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier win against Algeria. In the final tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, he started Morocco's opening game at the Stade d'Angondjé in Libreville, being replaced by Adel Taarabt at half-time in a 2–1 loss to rivals Tunisia. He took no further part as Morocco were eliminated from their group. Assaidi started two games in the next year's edition of the tournament in South Africa, where his team fell at the same hurdle. On 16 November 2014, Assaidi scored his first international goal for over three years, a long-range equaliser in a 2–1 friendly win over Zimbabwe.