{"id":2481,"date":"2026-07-01T11:24:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/?p=2481"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T15:35:35","slug":"who-is-ismael-saibari-meet-morocco-forward-that-scored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/who-is-ismael-saibari-meet-morocco-forward-that-scored\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Ismael Saibari? Meet Morocco forward that scored"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is Ismael Saibari? Meet Morocco forward that scored beautiful opening goal against Brazil originally . Many soccer fans have grown skeptical about how far Brazil can go at this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Ismael Saibari \u2013 Morocco\u2019s World Cup breakout Star ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ismael Saibari continued his World Cup scoring streak, converting the winning penalty against the Netherlands to send Morocco into the last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saibari is enjoying a breakout tournament in North America, putting the Atlas Lions on course to match their achievements of Qatar 2022 where they became the first African and Arab nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Ismael Saibari?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Saibari is a 25-year-old forward who has spent his entire career in the Netherlands representing PSV Eindhoven.after the German champions agreed a fee with the Dutch club that could rise to \u20ac55 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Terrassa, Spain, to Moroccan parents, he holds triple citizenship (Spain, Belgium, and Morocco) but chose to represent Morocco internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is his record like in the Netherlands?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pretty impressive. Saibari has helped PSV win the past three Eredivisie titles, as well as the 2023 Dutch Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 142 appearances, he has scored 42 goals and was also voted Dutch Player of the Year this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What about for Morocco?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Saibari chose to represent the country of his parents, winning two caps at Under-20 level and 12 at U23. He helped Morocco win the U23 Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Morocco's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ismael Saibari continued his World Cup scoring streak, converting the winning penalty against the Netherlands to send Morocco into the last 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saibari is enjoying a breakout tournament in North America, putting the Atlas Lions on course to match their achievements of Qatar 2022 where they became the first African and Arab nation to reach the World Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is Ismael Saibari?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Saibari is a 25-year-old forward who has spent his entire career in the Netherlands representing PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is his record like in the Netherlands?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pretty impressive. Saibari has helped PSV win the past three Eredivisie titles, as well as the 2023 Dutch Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 142 appearances, he has scored 42 goals and was also voted Dutch Player of the Year this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Morocco's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What about for Morocco?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Saibari chose to represent the country of his parents, winning two caps at Under-20 level and 12 at U23. He helped Morocco win the U23 Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since moving up to the senior team, Saibari has gone from strength to strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saibari was part of the Morocco squad that won the 2025 Afcon title after Senegal were controversially stripped of it, although they are\u00a0appealing the Confederation of African Football\u2019s decision<\/a>\u00a0at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 33 caps, Saibari has scored 12 goals, and become a focal point of attack in Mohamed Ouahbi\u2019s team at this\u00a0World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How is he doing at the 2026 World Cup?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lionel Messi\u00a0<\/a>may have six goals from three games, but the Argentina captain is already a superstar of the game. Maybe the greatest of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brahim Diaz was expected to spearhead Morocco\u2019s charge but Saibari has been the tournament\u2019s breakthrough star so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He scored in all three of Morocco\u2019s group games, including\u00a0against Brazil in a 1-1 draw<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He backed that up with the\u00a0winner against Scotland<\/a>\u00a0after only two minutes and was also\u00a0on target in the win against Haiti<\/a>\u00a0that sealed second place in Group C for Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Style of play<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A burly striker standing 1.82m, Saibari has the physique to complement his undoubted skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was on full display against the Dutch in their Round-of-32 match, where Saibari was involved in a running battle against Jan Paul van Hecke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two came nose-to-nose early in the game before they were separated, and Saibari left the Oranje defender with a bad cut to the top of his head later in the first half, although the knee was accidental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another coming together late in extra time this time resulted in a cut to the cheek of Saibari, who required medical treatment as well as a change of shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A topsy-turvy shoot-out saw the scores tied at 2-2 after four penalties. Crysencio Summerville saw his penalty saved, leaving\u00a0Saibari to step up to slot home the penalty<\/a>\u00a0that took Morocco into the last 16 and a showdown against co-hosts Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who is Ismael Saibari? Meet Morocco forward that scored beautiful opening goal against Brazil originally . Many soccer fans have grown skeptical about how far Brazil can go at this year\u2019s World Cup. Who is Ismael Saibari \u2013 Morocco\u2019s World Cup breakout Star ? Ismael Saibari continued his World Cup scoring streak, converting the winning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2481"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2481\/revisions\/2498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}