{"id":11005,"date":"2018-02-20T01:14:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=11005"},"modified":"2018-02-20T01:14:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:14:06","slug":"top-arab-players-playing-european-leagues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2018\/02\/20\/top-arab-players-playing-european-leagues\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are the top Arab players playing in the European Leagues?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Assi Alghazali<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arabic players are set to light up Europe\u2019s two elite leagues as they get down to the pointy end.<\/p>\n

Here are the top six Arabic players to watch out for!<\/p>\n

Headlined of course by the \u201cEgyptian Messi\u201d, Mo Salah:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Any list of this kind has to start with the extraordinary Egyptian who has been absolutely magnificent since arriving from Roma to Liverpool in the middle of last year.<\/p>\n

He has scored a stunning 29 goals this season, including five in the Champions League, plus a further eight assists and his partnership with Roberto Firmino gets better every match.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yacine Brahimi (Porto)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The talented Algerian has slotted in superbly on the left for Porto since his arrival from Granada in 2014.<\/p>\n

He played all six of the group stage matches, playing 506 of a possible 540 minutes, scoring a goal and assisting another in the crucial 5-2 win over Monaco that saw Porto confirm their qualification for the knockout stages.<\/p>\n

In all, he has scored eight goals in 34 matches in all competitions for Porto this season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Medhi Benatia (Juventus)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Moroccan <\/span>centre back has been ever reliable at the heart of the Juventus <\/span>defence this season with 21 appearances in all competitions, including five in the Champions League.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His growing understanding with Andrea Barzagli has been vital to Juve\u2019s defensive solidity this season and he has also popped up with a couple of goals in Serie A, the first against Crotone and the second a crucial winner against AS Roma.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Achraf Hakimi (Real Madrid)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Moroccan made history last year becoming the first Arabic player ever to play for the famous Los Blancos.<\/p>\n

Achraf, or \u201cArra,\u201d as his team-mates call him played the full 90 minutes against Spurs in his Champions League debut at the Bernabeu and backed it up by also playing the full match in the return fixture at Wembley.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a lot of the ball; he didn\u2019t look out of place at any stage,\u201d El Pais journalist Pablo Perez said after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe incorporated very well in attack. He didn\u2019t suffer much in defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll have to wait and see if he appears in the knockout stages but it is clear he has a big future ahead of him in Madrid.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mohamed Elneny (Arsenal)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Along with Salah, Elneny played a key role in Egypt\u2019s historic qualification for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Since his arrival at the Emirates in 2015, he has made 33 appearances for the Gunners contributing three assists.<\/p>\n

The jury is still out with most Arsenal supporters about just how big a role Elneny can play for the Gunners but the 25-year-old is sure to feature as they try to go deep into the Europa League.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s played six matches in the tournament so far, scoring a goal in the 6-0 rout of BATE Borisov.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sofiane Hanni (Spartak Moscow)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Algerian attacking midfielder began the season at Anderlecht in Belgium where he played all six group matches of their unsuccessful Champions League campaign, even scoring against Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n

On the January deadline day, he joined Spartak Moscow in a three-and-half-year deal, which will now see him turn out for them in the Europa League, starting with Athletic Bilbao on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Hanni scored 18 goals in 61 league appearances for Anderlecht and led the Purple-Whites to league triumph last season as the captain.<\/p>\n

He gained his first cap for Algerian side in June 2016, aged 25, in an Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against Seychelles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Assi Alghazali Arabic players are set to light up Europe\u2019s two elite leagues as they get down to the pointy end. Here are the top six Arabic players to watch out for! Headlined of course by the \u201cEgyptian Messi\u201d, Mo Salah:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":11012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[1222,1225,1226,1223,1227,1224],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}