Hassan Akesbi

1952/55 FUS de Rabat (MOR)

1955/1961 Nîmes Olympique (FRA) 238 matches, 140 goals

(French Championship: 204 matches, 119 goals)

(Coupe de France: 29 matches, 19 goals)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 5 matches, 2 goals)

1961/63 Stade de Reims (FRA) 80 matches, 56 goals

(French Championship: 66 matches, 46 goals)

(Coupe de France: 9 matches, 8 goals)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 1 match)

(European Champion Clubs' Cup: 4 matches, 2 goals)

1964 AS Monaco (FRA) 15 matches, 7 goals

(French Championship: 11 matches, 6 goals)

(Coupe de France: 2 matches, 1 goal)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 2 matches)

1964/65 Stade de Reims (FRA) 29 matches, 13 goals

(Championnat de France de D2 24 matches, 11 goals)

(Coupe de France: 4 matches, 2 goals)

(Coupe Charles Drago: 1 match)

1965/70 FUS de Rabat (MOR)

With the National Team :

4 caps, 3 goals

(Friendly matches: 1 cap, 2 goals)

(World Cup Qualifiers: 3 caps, 1 goal)

1st cap: November 13, 1960 against Tunisia (1-2)

Last cap: January 5, 1969 against Senegal (1-2)

Hassan Akesbi

Born on May 1, 1935 in Tangier (MAR)

Died on November 9, 2024

Moroccan, Striker, 1m73

Hassan Akesbi was born on May 1, 1935 in Tangier, Morocco. It was in his native country that he discovered football and fell in love with it. He played in the Sevillana Tangier club, which was attached to U.D. España at the time. The young boy had immense talent and the FC Barcelona club tried to recruit him. His parents refused and preferred that he join FUS Rabat.

Capable of scoring with a few touches of the ball, he quickly caught the eye of Kader Firoud. The latter offered him the opportunity to join Europe and the Nîmes Olympique club. The beginning of his great adventure in Europe. Discovering the rigor of European football, he would ultimately quickly establish himself in the French squad. For his first season in France, he scored 17 goals in the French championship, finishing 7th best scorer. He also won the Charles Drago Cup and gave a title to a team that was then playing in the middle of the table in the championship.

With Akesbi, Nîmes Olympique found a gem. The club managed to finish 3 times vice-champion of France between 1958 and 1960. He also reached the final of the Coupe de France twice, without success in 1958 and 1961. Akesbi was then one of the best players in France. For Nîmes Olympique, he finished 5 times out of his 6 seasons at the club with more than 20 goals in all competitions, including 1 time with 30 goals.

A combative and technical player, he had an atypical but effective style of play. And he was finally recruited by the big French club of the time, Stade de Reims. The transfer at the time, in 1961, was worth 45 million old francs. With the aim of replacing Just Fontaine, the 26-year-old Moroccan would very quickly confirm his talent.

Alongside Raymond Kopa and Roger Piantoni, the African would win his first and last French championship title in 1962 at the end of a wonderful season, scoring 22 goals in 36 league games and 27 goals in 43 games in all competitions. A highlight of this title was that it was decided until the final moments of the last league game, a 5-1 victory for Stade de Reims against Strasbourg with a double from Akesbi and an average goal average of 1.383 against 1.365 for Racing Club de Paris.

During the following season, Akesbi will have the most effective season of his career, in fact, during the 1962/63 season, the Moroccan striker will score 31 goals in 39 games in all competitions. He finished runner-up in France. But this was already his last great season at the age of 28.

Because during the 1963/64 season, Akesbi left Stade de Reims mid-season for AS Monaco, where he was a substitute. He then returned to Stade de Reims, when the club was playing in the French 2nd division and scored a few goals, but the team only reached half of the table. The player then decided to return to Morocco, to FUS Rabat where he retired 5 years later, in 1970, at the age of 35.

His international career remained limited, the player will have only played a few games for his country. Scoring a few goals. A player of enormous talent, he made East Germany and Spain tremble.

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