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Talal El Karkouri

Moroccan footballer (born 1976)

Summary

Moroccan footballer (born 1976)

Field	Value
name	Talal El Karkouri
image	Talal El Karkouri 2009.jpg
image_size	200
caption	El Karkouri lining up for Morocco in 2009
height	1.86 m
birth_date
birth_place	Casablanca, Morocco
position	Centre-back
years1	1994–1999
years2	1995–1997
years3	1999–2000
years4	2000–2004
years5	2000–2001
years6	2003
years7	2004–2007
years8	2006
years9	2007–2011
years10	2011–2012
clubs1	Raja Casablanca
clubs2	→ Ittihad Tanger (loan)
clubs3	Servette
clubs4	Paris Saint-Germain
clubs5	→ Aris (loan)
clubs6	→ Sunderland (loan)
clubs7	Charlton Athletic
clubs8	→ Al-Gharafa (loan)
clubs9	Qatar SC
clubs10	Umm-Salal
caps1	?	goals1 = ?
caps2	?	goals2 = ?
caps3	77	goals3 = 1
caps4	113	goals4 = 2
caps5	11	goals5 = 0
caps6	8	goals6 = 0
caps7	78	goals7 = 8
caps8	?	goals8 = ?
caps9	77	goals9 = 12
caps10	?	goals10 = ?
totalcaps	364	totalgoals = 23
nationalyears1	2000–2009
nationalteam1	Morocco
nationalcaps1	53	nationalgoals1 = 5
managerclubs1	Umm Salal SC
manageryears1	2016–2018
managerclubs2	Umm Salal SC
manageryears2	2023–

Talal El Karkouri (, born 8 July 1976) is a Moroccan former professional footballer and former coach of Qatar Stars League club Umm Salal SC. He played top-flight football in Morocco, France, Greece, England and Qatar before retiring in 2012. He made his international debut for Morocco in 2000, and earned 53 caps, playing at three African Cups of Nations.

Club career

Early career

Born in Casablanca, El Karkouri started his career with Raja Casablanca, and was discovered by French club Paris Saint-Germain in 2000. He played in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League, but after failing to capture a regular place he was sent on loan to Aris in Greece.

On 31 January 2003 he was loaned to Sunderland of the Premier League until the end of the season. His spell was affected by injury, and he was released on 26 May after the club were relegated. The Black Cats lost in all eight of his appearances.

Charlton

In the summer of 2004, he was bought by Charlton Athletic of the Premier League for £1 million. He scored five goals in his debut season at Charlton, starting with the only goal in a win over Blackburn Rovers on 27 September 2004, by heading Danny Murphy's corner. He also scored the club's goal of the season against Arsenal.

On 6 April 2006, having made only 12 appearances all season, he was loaned to Al-Gharafa in Qatar.

On 30 December 2006, El Karkouri was given a yellow card by referee Rob Styles for an act of simulation in a home match against Aston Villa involving Villa defender Olof Mellberg. He was accused of a similar act against Reading on 9 April 2007 later in the same season, this time involving Reading striker Leroy Lita, who headbutted him.

Reading boss Steve Coppell accused El Karkouri of faking a 'death roll' and claimed that he would have needed treatment in intensive care had Lita headbutted him. Lita urged the FA to do something about 'diving cheats' after being hit with the ban. He said "I didn't touch him, he went down like an idiot and it was cheating". The FA disagreed and banned the Reading striker for three games for violent conduct. Coppell did not apologise for his comments.

Qatar

On 10 June 2007, following his release and Charlton's relegation, El Karkouri signed a two-year contract with Qatar Sports Club.

On 11 September 2011, after four seasons with Qatar SC, El Karkouri signed a one-year deal with another Qatari club, Umm-Salal.

On 25 May 2012, El Karkouri announced his retirement from professional football.

International career

El Karkouri was capped 53 times and scored 5 goals for Morocco. He was part of the team that finished second in the 2004 African Nations Cup.

On 29 January 2008, he announced his retirement from international football, after his team's failure to qualify for the latter stages of the 2008 African Nations Cup, but he returned on 28 March 2009 playing the 2010 World Cup qualifications match against Gabon in Casablanca.

Career statistics

Club

International

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Morocco	2000	4	0
2001	0	0
2002	4	0
2003	10	0
2004	11	2
2005	5	2
2006	11	0
2007	5	1
2008	1	0
2009	2	0

:Morocco score listed first, score column indicates score after each El Karkouri goal.

No.	Date	Venue	Score	Result	Competition
1	31 January 2004	Stade Taïeb El Mhiri, Sfax, Tunisia	4–0	4–0	2004 Africa Cup of Nations
2	4 September 2004	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco	1–1	1–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
3	3 September 2005	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco	1–0	1–0	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
4	8 October 2005	Stade 7 November, Radès, Tunisia	2–1	2–2	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
5	17 October 2007	Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium, Rabat, Morocco	2–0	2–0	Friendly

Honours

Paris Saint-Germain

UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2001{{cite news |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010923221506/http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/FixturesResults/Round%3D1537/Match%3D68072/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 September 2001 |access-date=16 June 2020}}
Coupe de France: 2003–04

Morocco

Africa Cup of Nations runner-up: 2004

References

[https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/maro-karkouri-intl.html Talal El Karkouri - International Appearances]
(31 January 2003). "Sunderland bolster defence". [[BBC Sport]].
"ESPNFC: Soccer Sunderland release defender El Karkouri".
(18 May 2016). "Aston Villa's Jack Grealish sets unwanted Premier League record". Goal.com.
(11 July 2004). "Charlton sign El Karkouri". BBC Sport.
(27 September 2004). "Charlton 1-0 Blackburn". BBC News.
"ESPNFC: Soccer El Karkouri leaves Addicks for Qatar".
Russell Kempson. (13 April 2007). "Irate Coppell lets rip over El Karkouri 'death roll'". [[The Times]].
Lewis Rutledge }}{{dead link. (January 2018). "Lita Furious with FA". [[Sky Sports]].
"Charlton defender el Karkouri on way to Qatar SC | Australia/Asia News | Tribal Football".
"QFA | Qatar Football Association - el Karkouri signs with Umm-Salal".
"Résultat et résumé Paris-SG - Châteauroux, Coupe de France, Finale, Samedi 29 Mai 2004". lequipe.fr.
"African Nations Cup 2004".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

living-people 1976-births footballers-from-casablanca men's-association-football-defenders moroccan-men's-footballers morocco-men's-international-footballers 2004-african-cup-of-nations-players 2006-africa-cup-of-nations-players 2008-africa-cup-of-nations-players expatriate-men's-footballers-in-england expatriate-men's-footballers-in-greece expatriate-men's-footballers-in-france expatriate-men's-footballers-in-switzerland moroccan-expatriate-men's-footballers moroccan-expatriate-sportspeople-in-england moroccan-expatriate-sportspeople-in-france moroccan-expatriate-sportspeople-in-greece moroccan-expatriate-sportspeople-in-qatar moroccan-expatriate-sportspeople-in-switzerland naturalized-citizens-of-france french-men's-footballers raja-ca-players aris-thessaloniki-f.c.-players paris-saint-germain-fc-players sunderland-a.f.c.-players charlton-athletic-f.c.-players premier-league-players ligue-1-players super-league-greece-players expatriate-men's-footballers-in-qatar qatar-sc-players al-gharafa-sc-players umm-salal-sc-players qatar-stars-league-players botola-players caf-champions-league–winning-players

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