The closing hours of the transfer window, which slammed shut for most of the major leagues of Europe on Monday night, can leave a newly-contracted footballer exhausted.
The clock ticks towards deadline, medicals need scheduling, flights arranging. Contingency plans must be put into place. And that’s when things go relatively smoothly.
Spare a thought then for Eliesse Ben Seghir, the 20 year-old winger, a rising star of Moroccan football much admired across Europe for his incisive impact at Monaco, for whom he debuted at 17.
On the penultimate day of trading, he at last put pen to paper on a deal long in the negotiating, a five-year commitment to Bayer Leverkusen, a transfer that will earn Monaco a minimum of €30m.
Ben Seghir is entitled to see the move as a step up, Germany’s top division being stronger than France’s, Leverkusen being the winners of a Bundesliga and German Cup Double as recently as 2023-24.
Yet barely had Ben Seghir made his introductions to his new employer than he learned they had sacked their head coach. Erik ten Hag, appointed by Leverkusen in May, left on Monday, deadline day, a mere two league matches - one drawn one loss - into his tenure.
The club hope to have a successor in place by the end of the international break, by which time Ben Seghir will at least have a chance to reflect on the whirligig of events shaping his future with several compatriots whose careers have also taken new directions this busy summer.
It is a mark of the strength in depth of Moroccan football that so many of Ben Seghir’s fellow countrymen have animated a summer that, driven by ever-higher English Premier League budgets and stimulated by the Saudi Arabian Pro League’s muscular spending, will set new records for overall outlay on players.
By the close of trading in the main European leagues nine Morocco internationals aged 25 or under had made significant moves that should advance their club careers.
That’s one strand of a notable summer of transfers for leading footballers from across the Mena region. The last 48 hours of business bought big moves for some established, older stars, too: Mehdi Taremi, the Iran striker, joined Olympiakos of Greece, for whom this season he will play in the Uefa Champions League, having helped guide Internazionale to the competition’s final in 2024-25 and led the line for Porto in the European Cup through four campaigns earlier in his distinguished career.
Sofyan Amrabat, the worldly Moroccan midfielder, made an 11th hour move to Real Betis, where he will add a stint in La Liga to a storied resum that, since Amrabat starred for his country in the 2022 World Cup, has included spells in Italy’s Serie A, with Fiorentina, the English Premier League, with Manchester United, and Turkey’s Super Lig, with Fenerbahce.
Further proof that a tough, disciplined anchor midfielder will always be in demand is the latest journey of Libya’s Muattasim Al Musrati, transferred to Verona of Italy’s top flight, his fourth port of call in two years, after spells at Portugal’s Braga, France’s Monaco and Besiktas in Turkey.
It’s been a threshold summer for leading Palestine players, with Wessam Abou Ali switching from Al Ahly, where he made such a strong impression, notably in the Club World Cup in June, to Columbus Crew of the American MLS. His compatriot, Oday Dabbagh, ensured the Palestine flag still flies high in Cairo football, joining Zamalek from Belgium’s Charleroi.
While Saudi football continues to lure some of the world’s best to the kingdom’s leading clubs, a select few Saudi footballers are busy doing something scarcely precedented: moving within Europe.
Saud Abdulhamid, the attacking full-back who last season went from Al Hilal to Roma, is now at Lens of France’s top division. He has made a fine start, coming off the bench to swiftly contribute his first assist of the season in Lens’s victory at the weekend over Brest.
Such was the impression made last season by 21-year-old Saudi winger Marwan Al Sahafi at Belgian club Beerschot that Royal Antwerp, a stronger club than Beerschot, have now snapped him up.
Higher up the club hierarchy, the dashing Algeria left-back Rayan Ait Nouri joined Manchester City from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a fee that could rise above €40m.
His fellow international, the precocious Ibrahim Maza, 19, left Hertha Berlin of Germany’s second tier, for Leverkusen, where, like Ben Seghir, he is now digesting the news that the coach who welcomed him, Ten Hag, is no longer in charge.
For a young player, events like that can be startling, unnerving. Ben Seghir at least can talk through the turmoil at Leverkusen with Amine Adli as they link up ahead of Morocco’s World Cup qualifying matches this week and next. Adli, 25, has just left Leverkusen to join Bournemouth, one of a caravan of Moroccans lured to the Premier League, the starlets Adam Aznou, 19 and now of Everton, and Chemsdine Talbi, 20 and at Sunderland, among them.
With Morocco confidently marching towards a hosting of the Africa Cup of Nations in December and an all-but-confirmed place at next summer’s World Cup, several other Atlas Lions have made upgrades to their club careers that, they hope, will help their international prospects.
Bilal El Khannouss, 21, left relegated Leicester City for German Cup holders Stuttgart on deadline day; Hamza Igamane, 22, pushed hard for his move from Glasgow Rangers to Lille. Neil El Ayanoui joined Roma from Lens and was almost immediately rewarded with a first senior Morocco call-up.
Their ambition, and the clear, eager market for young Moroccan talent can only please the country’s head coach Walid Regragui.
But as he gathers his players together, he’ll note that some have arrived distracted and a little frayed. Sealing a late move in the transfer window is stressful, even when that move promises a bright, exhilarating future.
