Fiorentina midfielder Sofyan Amrabat has been making headlines over the past week or so after his incredible and tireless performances with Morocco at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
He has been a key part of taking his national team to the semi-finals in Qatar, making the Atlas Lions the first-ever African team to reach that stage of football’s biggest tournament.
Whilst the collective is what has taken Morocco so far, some players have stood out above the rest and Amrabat is certainly one of them.
Amrabat’s busy agent
Thanks to his work rate in the Moroccan midfield during the World Cup, particularly in the 1-0 quarter-final victory over Portugal on Saturday, Mohammed Sinouh has been fielding a lot of calls.
He told transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano on the phone: “Every day I receive many phone calls from clubs about Sofyan. The whole world has seen that he is the best defensive midfielder of the World Cup, Sofyan has been excellent in the competition.”
It certainly seems like there is a lot of genuine interest in the 26-year-old defensive midfielder. Premier League sides such as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have been very seriously linked in recent days as they believe he could be a cheap pick-up in January or the summer.
This is even now the case given that by the end of this season, he will only have a year left to run on his deal with Fiorentina which expires in June, 2024. Fiorentina do have an option to extend it to 2025 though, something they will presumably trigger soon.
La Viola may not let a cheap deal take place though, as a report from Spanish outlet Relevo suggests they will want €30 million to let Amrabat leave the club in January as a fixed fee, and another €10 million in add-ons.
Also, Fiorentina’s sporting director, Daniele Prade, was quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport recently as saying: “We are very happy with Sofy and we will hold on to him.”
Amrabat’s career so far
There is a feeling that Sofyan Amrabat has been around for a long time now, but he is actually still only 26 years old and he will not be 27 until late August. He was actually born in the Netherlands and played for Utrecht and Feyenoord at the beginning of his career.
After a couple of years in Belgium with Club Brugge, Amrabat made his first move to Italy. He signed for Hellas Verona on loan in 2019 and the deal was made permanent in January 2020 for €3.65 million.
Just a few days later, Verona sold him to Fiorentina for €19.5 million and he was loaned back to the Gialloblu for the rest of the season. Since August 2020, he has been playing for Fiorentina.
He has now made 78 appearances for Fiorentina, which shows just how reliable a player he has been in the midfield for La Viola. Since arriving in Italy, he has missed just eight games through injury.
After the round of 16 match against Spain, Amrabat revealed that he had a late night with the physios trying to ensure he could play through an injury.
“To the question of whether I was able to play, I’ll tell you that yesterday until 3am I stayed up with the physiotherapist trying to do the impossible,” Amrabat said.
“Today I played with injections, but I couldn’t leave my teammates and a whole country. I’m really happy and proud.”
His consistency both in terms of fitness and the way that he plays is what makes him a very attractive prospect. It should be said, though, don’t expect much attacking output from Amrabat in your midfield. He’s scored a singular goal and got no assists in 78 Fiorentina appearances.
