Karim El Ahmadi

Karim El Ahmadi is a defensive midfielder of Aston Villa. He was born on 27 January 1985 in Enschede, Netherlands.

Karim’s youth career took off in local UDI, where the future footballer trained during several years. Later the midfielder had a successful trial at Twente and moved to the academy of the club.

In the winter 2004, El Ahmadi penned his first professional four-year contract with Twente. Karim took the place of a defensive midfielder by degrees, carefully adjusting to the life of the main team and being under the guidance of the head coach. The footballer’s début came on 21 March 2004 in a 2-0 loss to Utrecht. It did not take much time for El Ahmadi to clinch the place of a regular. The 2007/2008 season was remarkable, because the midfielder and his team managed to qualify for the Champions League. All in all, Karim made 89 appearances and netted three goals for Twente during four years.

In April 2008, the footballer sealed a five-year deal with Feyenoord worth €5 million. El Ahmadi failed to make a quick start in the new club, because he was injured at the beginning of the season. His début for Feyenoord came in the UEFA Cup 2-1 victory over Kalmar FF. His first league game was against NEC, but his team suffered a home defeat.

In 2011 Karim went on loan to Al Ahli, where he featured in ten games and fired one goal.

In the summer 2012, the footballer ended his Feyenoord spell with Aston Villa move.

From 2008, El Ahmadi was capped 17 times and contributed one goal for the Morocco national team.