132: Moustapha Hadji, Coventry City, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2000, Millennium Edition Sticker Collection

Today Mat Jolin-Beech covers a player who ticks so many boxes for a blog post that I won’t even list them all in this brief introduction. Especially as that would duplicate a lot of his first paragraph. It’s worth noting here that the sticker itself has misspelled Hadji’s first name by adding a superfluous ‘o’. Merlin have previous with this – ‘Bontcho Guentchev’ was actually called Boncho Genchev. As someone whose own employer regularly refers to me as ‘Mani Hawkes’ I feel their pain.  Over to Mat.

 

When choosing to write a piece on a footballer, there are many reasons we here at ‘500 words’ have used: Club and country loyalties; cult status; fights; the ability to eat many dinners; being key to Football Manager successes; and actually being a good footballer. This latest blog was not based on any of those. The reason was purely because the name remains in my memory from early noughties football. The name: Mustapha Hadji.

My actual memories of him include, and are limited to: his name, geeze facial hair, and stints with Coventry City and Aston Villa. So, this is as much a voyage of discovery as it is a reminiscence about a Merlin sticker book name.

 

Let’s get the all important stats out the way.

•          Games: 518

•          Goals: 155

•          Caps: 63

•          International goals: 12

•          World Cup appearances: 2

 

Not bad for a midfielder. Especially one who played for Coventry and Villa.

 

As a Moroccan immigrant to France at the age of ten, his first club was AS Nancy (stop giggling at the back). Five years and almost 100 goals followed, before a move to Portuguese big hitters Sporting Lisbon, and then the giant killers of Spanish football, Deportivo La Coruna. Sadly, he left in 1999 just before the influx of Noureddine Naybet, Diego Tristán, Djalminha, Fran, Roy Makaay and Mauro Silva, saw Branquiazuis win their first, and to date, only league title. But that departure was softened by a move to Highfield Road and the might of Coventry City.

 

And to rub salt into the wound even more – this was during a time when Coventry City’s usually epic kit designers had lost yheir mojo too. Sky blue and white stripes, and just a sky blue kit were worn by Hadji during his two seasons there. That Coventry squad packed some talent – despite relegation in 2001. An ageing Colin Hendry, Barry Ferguson, Gary McAllister, and Robbie Keane. It was a hotbed – ok, a lukewarm mattress – of talent. Along with Youssef Chippo, he brought North African talent to the Premier League, and gave Fez manufacturers of the Midlands a welcome boost.

 

Following relegation, he jumped ship to rivals Aston Villa. Bar the UEFA Intertoto Cup win, it was not a successful move. Fewer games and fewer goals followed the transfer. Afterwards, Hadji had a meandering end of career pathway which took him to the UAE, the German second division and Luxembourg’s first division.

 

One of the reasons why Hadji’s name is seared into my memory, is that he was a decent player. A very decent player in fact. The fiftieth greatest African player of all time – at least according to Ed Dove of the Bleacher Report. He describes Hadji as “an agile, innovative, imaginative attacking midfielder who excelled with the ball at his feet and a defence ahead of him”.  Hadji was also was named African Footballer of the Year in 1998 – the only non-West African to win the award in over two decades.

 

Not bad. Not bad at all. Especially for someone who played for Coventry and Villa.