Soufiane Rahimi: Al Ain's lodestar primed to shine in Asian Champions League final

There’s a moment in many schoolchildren’s lives when they dream of getting that bit closer to their sporting heroes. A front-row seat in the grandstand. A snatched selfie outside the stadium. For the lucky ones, maybe it’s a day as a mascot, or perched near the touchline as a ball boy.

For Soufiane Rahimi, the striker who has galvanised Al Ain’s journey to the Asian Champions League final, the heroes and role-models were part of everyday life from infancy, practically guaranteed to pass by his bedroom window all through his boyhood and into his teens. “Soufiane’s is very special story,” smiles Juan Carlos Garrido, the head coach who ushered Rahimi into adulthood and gave him his big break as a senior professional.

The uniquely special part is how and where Rahimi grew up. Home for the family was a modestly-sized house attached to the practice ground of one of Morocco’s most storied sporting institutions, Raja Club Athletic, in the Oasis district of Casablanca.

It was accommodation reserved for Mohamed ‘Youaari’ Rahimi, father to several sons and daughters, and it came with Youaari’s job with Raja Casablanca, as the club are commonly known: Chief kit-man, and much besides. Youaari, is, as Garrido learned immediately he was appointed as Raja’s head coach in 2017, “a club legend”. He was officially attached to Raja for over half a century. Beyond his duties organising equipment, he was the extrovert who cajoled and motivated generations of players, whose eye for talent and wide connections across Moroccan football meant that when he advised Raja’s recruiters on young prospects, they listened.

As it turned out, some of the best gifts Youaari bequeathed the club would come from his own household. There’s Soufiane, the star.