Jaouad Zairi
Personal information
Full name	Jaouad Zairi
Date of birth	April 14, 1982 (1982-04-14) (age 27)
Place of birth	Taza, Morocco
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in)[1]
Playing position	Winger
Club information
Current club	Olympiacos
Number	11
Youth career
1997-2000	FC Gueugnon
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000–2001 2001–2006 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-present	FC Gueugnon FC Sochaux Al-Ittihad Boavista F.C. FC Nantes Asteras Tripolis Olympiacos	28 (4) 91 (8) 24 (8) 6 (0) 8 (0) 42 (0) 7 (2)
National team2
2000–	Morocco	33 (6)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17 July 2009. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 23 June 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Jaouad Zairi (Arabic: جواد الزاري‎) (born 1982 in Taza, Morocco) is a Moroccan footballer currently playing for Olympiacos in the Greek Super League. He's nicknamed "The Jogler", because of his impressive skills.

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Football career 3 Olympiacos F.C. 4 International career 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Personal life

Zairi was born into a large family in the city of Taza, central Morocco. As a young school boy he dreamt of playing football for the national team of Morocco, while being a huge fan of Diego Maradona. He would be found playing football with his friends till late hours, upsetting his parents. In 1997 a scout for the French team FC Gueugnon was very impressed by Zairi's skills and took him to France.

[edit] Football career

He joined the French Ligue 2 team FC Gueugnon at the age of 15.

In the summer of 2001, he joined FC Sochaux as a Right Winger and has a contract with them through 2008. Unhappy with the amount of play time he was getting under manager Dominique Bijotat, he was entertaining talks with Lyon as well as several Saudi teams.

In January 2006 he was loaned to the Saudi giants Al-Ittihad for 800,000 US dollars, but was released back to Sochaux due to his wish no longer to stay in Saudi Arabia.

He moved to Portugal (2006-2007) and played for one year with Boavista F.C.

He return in France and played another year with FC Nantes (2007-2008)

He moved to Greece and played with Asteras Tripolis the season 2008-2009 which plays in Super League Greece. His skills impressed the Giants Olympiacos FC and offered him a 2-year deal starting from the season 2009-2010.

[edit] Olympiacos F.C.

On 25 April 2009, Olympiacos C.F.P announced the agreement with the player to be a part of the squad from the season 2009-2010 for 600,000 Euro per year. Jaouad Zairi will have the opportunity for first time in his career to show his skills in Champions League with the Greek Champions.

[edit] International career

He is part of the Marocco national team.

He gained particular notoriety within Morocco due to his performance over the course of the African Nations Cup in 2004 when Morocco made it to the finals but lost to their North African rivals Tunisia. His skills remind many football commentators and analysts of Cristiano Ronaldo. He is often compared with him because of having the same style of playing and wearing the same shirt number. He is a regular forward (particularly right wing) on the Morocco national football team.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• Moroccan Football

v • d • e Morocco squad – 2004 Africa Cup of Nations Runners-up 1 Fouhami • 2 Regragui • 3 Roumani • 4 Ouaddou • 5 El Karkouri • 6 Naybet • 7 Zairi • 8 Kissi • 9 Baha • 10 Hdiouad • 11 Moha • 12 El Jarmouni • 13 Kharja • 14 Bidoudane • 15 Safri • 16 Mokhtari • 17 Chamakh • 18 Alla • 19 Alioui • 20 Hadji • 21 Chihab • 22 Lamyaghri • Coach: Zaki

v • d • e Morocco squad – 2006 Africa Cup of Nations 1 Jarmouni • 2 Regragui • 3 Kacemi • 4 Ouaddou • 5 El Karkouri • 6 Naybet • 7 Zairi • 8 Ouchla • 9 Boussaboun • 10 Moha • 11 Zerka • 12 Chadili • 13 Kharja • 14 Abdessadek • 15 Safri • 16 Erbati • 17 Chamakh • 18 Chippo • 19 Aboucherouane • 20 Hadji • 21 El Kaddouri • 22 Lamyaghri • 23 Armoumen • Coach: Fakhir

v • d • e Olympiacos F.C. – current squad 1 Panagopoulos · 2 K. Papadopoulos · 3 Domi · 4 Mellberg · 5 Galitsios · 6 Stoltidis · 7 Galletti · 8 Óscar · 9 Derbyshire · 10 Diogo · 11 Zairi · 14 Żewłakow · 15 Bravo · 20 Dudu · 21 A. Papadopoulos · 22 Mitroglou · 23 Niklitsiotis · 24 Leonardo · 25 Maresca · 28 Ledesma · 30 Pantos · 31 Soiledis · 33 G. Papadopoulos · 35 Torosidis · 50 Kováč · 71 Nikopolidis · 78 Pardo · 88 Katsikogiannis · Manager: Zico