Former Barcelona starlet Ez Abde scores stunning goal for Morocco at Olympics

It’s not been the easiest 12 months for Ez Abde. He left Barcelona at the end of last summer’s transfer window in pursuit of more prominence at Real Betis, but regular underwhelming performances have meant that he is far down the pecking order in Manuel Pellegrini’s squad. However, he’s hoping to put things right, and he’s now going in the right direction.

Abde was dropped for Morocco’s first Olympic Games group stage match against Argentina, but he has started the last two in France. Again Iraq on MD3, he produced a very strong performance, which was capped off by a stunning strike to make it 3-0.

Abde will hope that Pellegrini was watching him on Tuesday, as he looked back to his best. The 22-year-old has been linked with a return to Catalonia this summer – to Girona – but his priority is to remain at Betis for at least one more season, as he hopes to return to prominence during the 2024-25 campaign.