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Rabat – Jeffrey Talan, Hakim Ziyech’s former coach during his formative years at Dutch club SC Heerenveen club, has lauded the Moroccan player’s dedication and professionalism, describing the Chelsea playmaker as one the best and most disciplined footballers he has ever coached.
In a statement to the French sport outlet So Foot, Talan appeared to take Ziyech’s side in the month-long rift between the midfielder and Vahid Halilhodzic, the head coach of the Atlas Lions, Morocco’s national football team.
Halilhodiz has notably described Ziyech as undisciplined and self-entitled. According to Talan, however, this is a myth created by “bad” coaches and football observers who confuse Ziyech’s strong personality with self-entitlement and carelessness.
“He [Ziyech] has been given the reputation of a ‘strong head,’ but this is far from being true,” Talan said, emphasizing that he never had any sort of conflicts with the Chelsea midfielder during his formative years at Heerenveen.
“I had a very good relationship with Ziyech. I trained him for a very long time, and he is a special person with a unique mindset,” he added.
As Morocco prepared to take part in this year’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), fans of the Atlas Lions were shocked to discover that Ziyech was not part of the Moroccan squad.
In justifying his decision to exclude Ziyech from his AFCON team, Halilhodzic repeatedly argued that his refusal to call up Ziyech to the national team was due to the Chelsea player’s “unacceptable behavior.”
Read Also: ‘Final Decision’: Hakim Ziyech Says He Will No Longer Play For Morocco
And even after Moroccan fans roasted him following Morocco’s frustrating AFCON exit, with many calling out his “self-defeating” decision to exclude world-class players like Ziyech and Ajax’s Noussair Mazroui, Halilhozdic stood by his choice.
In his first post-AFCON press conference, the Bosnian coach repeatedly hinted at Ziyech’s supposed indiscipline and lack of team mentality as the main reasons why he would never call him back to the national team.
For Talan, however, Ziyech is very disciplined and committed despite his strong personality fitting the archetype of the extremely talented and gifted footballer with questionable behavior.
“He is a silent man, not a complainer at all. When I asked him to play in defense, he did it seriously while many other team members complained about having to make an effort,” the Duch coach recalled.
On Halilhodzic’s relationship with Ziyech, Talan stressed, “A coach who doesn’t know how to manage Hakim Ziyech, is not a good coach, because if you can do it, you would have your best player.”
Addressing the whiner and bad team player image Ziyech’s rift with Halilhodzic might have created in some circles, Jeffrey Talan insisted that the Chelsea playmaker is instead a fun person and a great teammate. “When you’re with him, he likes to make jokes, he’s a pretty positive man actually,” he said
Talan also spoke of Ziyech’s leadership, saying that while playing at Heerenveen, Ziyech “made sure that everyone did things in the right way.”
Of Ziyech’s performances with Chelsea, the Duch coach concluded:. “He has become a very intelligent player, who has managed to make his way to the world-class level … I have to say that he has not changed as a human being. I can say that his youthful soul is still in him.”
With Morocco having qualified to the 2022 World Cup, fans are tenaciously pushing for Halilhodzic to put the interest of Morocco’s team before his quite manageable misunderstandings with world-class players like Ziyech and Mazraoui.
But given Halilhodzic’s history of grudge-holding and with Ziyech having recently announced his retirement from international duties, it remains to be seen whether the Ziyech-Halilhodzic rift will be settled before Morocco travels to Qatar in November for the World Cup.
