In England, Hakim Ziyech has been the talk of the town since the announcement of his transfer to Chelsea next summer. The Mirror, for example, has been keen to learn more about the player’s private life, and he has talked about his family in particular.
“My mother didn’t have an easy life. She was only 18 when she came to the Netherlands. My father had been here for a few years and my mother had to learn the language. It wasn’t easy,” said the Ajax Amsterdam star. “She also had to work hard to help my father with the expenses,” he continues.
“Life was difficult for us,” says Ziyech, who lost his father at the age of ten. “My mother had to raise nine children, and some of us weren’t easy,” adds the player who found a career path in football. But he admits that he never thought he would “become a professional footballer”.
In his hometown Dronten, it was on the streets that he first kicked his first balls, often alongside much older players. “Some of the older players took into account that I was younger, but not all of them. They went very fast. But it didn’t matter to me. As long as I could play football.”
Ziyech’s charisma and strong personality can be traced back to a painful the past, the death of his father: “I don’t need a mental coach to stay strong. I’ve been through a lot in my life. Losing a father is the worst thing that can happen to a young boy. Everything that happens next in life is relative”.
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