At a glance
- Roles
- athlete
- Region
- Maghreb
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
Life in time
Place in the story
Unknown (unknown)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Summary
Mbark Boussoufa is a retired Moroccan attacking midfielder, born in Amsterdam on 15 August 1984. Trained at Ajax and Chelsea, he made his name in Belgium with Gent and Anderlecht, where he was named Belgian Footballer of the Year three times, and went on to play in Russia and the Gulf. He won 70 caps for Morocco and started all three of their matches at the 2018 World Cup. 1 2 3 4
Career
Boussoufa came through the Ajax academy and then Chelsea's, and began his senior career with Gent in 2004. Two seasons later he joined Anderlecht, where he became the side's leading player: he was named Belgian Footballer of the Year in 2006, 2009 and 2010, and in the last of those seasons produced 14 goals and 24 assists as Anderlecht won the championship. A move to Terek Grozny in March 2011 fell through within days, and he signed instead for Anzhi Makhachkala. 1 2 3 4
In August 2013 he joined Lokomotiv Moscow, and he scored in the 2015 Russian Cup final as Lokomotiv beat Kuban Krasnodar 3–1 after extra time. After a loan back to Gent in 2016 he moved to Al Jazira in the Emirates, winning the league in 2016–17, and finished his career with Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia and Al-Sailiya in Qatar. Eligible for both the Netherlands and Morocco, he chose Morocco, debuting against the United States in May 2006; he played at the Africa Cup of Nations of 2012, 2017 and 2019 and at the 2018 World Cup, and announced his international retirement in July 2019 with 70 caps and 8 goals. 1 2 3 4
On the record
Sources
- Mbark Boussoufa — English Wikipedia
- Mbark Boussoufa — Arabic Wikipedia
- Mbark Boussoufa — French Wikipedia
- Mbark Boussoufa — Wikidata Q570109
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Mbark Boussoufa”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/mbark-boussoufa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-26.