What ex-QPR star Adel Taarabt nicknamed himself after joining AC Milan - Spurs fans must still wonder what if | OneFootball

Adel Taarabt was an explosive talent for QPR, and Spurs fans might wonder what might have been had he lived up to the nickname he gave himself.

Midfielder Adel Taarabt was a combustible character, but he was also an explosive talent for QPR, and Spurs fans may reflect on what might have been, had he lived up to a nickname that he gave himself.

Tottenham Hotspur fans, as the jokes famously go, are plenty used to their team flattering to deceive. And they have a lengthy history of this, players who promise the world but often fail to deliver.

It's certainly the case of the combustible midfielder Adel Taarabt, a player who didn't look as though he'd make their grade moved to Queens Park Rangers, but this move was followed by a couple of moves to Europe's biggest club sides, and when he went to Milan the player gave himself a nickname which Spurs fans may reflect they could have done with at that time, had he been able to deliver on it.

Ex-QPR, Spurs man Adel Taarabt nicknamed himself the "Balotelli of Morocco" upon signing on loan for AC Milan

After Taarabt's time at White Hart Lane failed to deliver, the midfielder was moved on to Queens Park Rangers, where he would spend most of the next five years between 2009 and 2014 before surprisingly being given a period on loan with the Italian giants AC Milan.

Never a player who was short on confidence in his own ability, when Taarabt arrived at the San Siro in January 2014 he gave himself the nickname of the "Balotelli of Morocco", a direct reference to the similarly combustible former Manchester City striker Mario Ballotelli, who at that time was absolutely tearing things up for Milan in Serie A and who ended the 2013-14 season with 30 goals for them in all competitions.

Taarabt's move to Loftus Road, which started with a loan at the start of 2009 and was made permanent in the summer of 2010, was more successful than his time with Spurs. He made over 150 appearances for the Rs over that time, scoring 34 goals.

The playmaker's time in West London was not short of controversy, but he famously lit up the Championship to help Neil Warnock's side to the league title with perhaps the most outstanding individual campaign the division has ever seen.

At the start of the 2013-14 season, with QPR having been relegated from the Premier League, Taarabt was loaned to Fulham. But he failed to impress the Cottagers enough over the first half of that season and returned to Loftus Road at the start of the new year.

What happened next was a huge surprise. At the end of the January 2014 transfer window, Taarabt was loaned to the Italian giants AC Milan for the second half of the season. And the player set a high standard for himself, telling the press that, "I thought ‘they’ve got the Italian Balotelli and now they’re going to have the Balotelli of Morocco’.”

And Milan supporters, who've had some of the finest players of all-time grace their club, could have been forgiven wondering whether Taarabt might join that pantheon of greats when he danced through the Napoli defence to score seven minutes into his debut, just nine days after signing for them.

But as so often seemed to be the case with Adel Taarabt, consistency was the issue. He ended up scoring four goals and creating four assists for the Rossoneri, but this wasn't enough to prevent a Round of 16 elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Atletico Madrid, while the team could only finish the season in 8th place in Serie A, failing to qualify for either the Champions League or Europa League for the first time in fifteen years.

Taarabt returned to Loftus Road at the end of the season, but both his and Rangers' 2014-15 season were a disaster. QPR had been promoted back to the Premier League in his absence, but they were relegated straight back in bottom place. Taarabt, meanwhile, only made seven appearances in the League for them all season and continued his tendency towards falling out with managers, in this case the QPR boss for the first half of the season, Harry Redknapp.

Even so, when he left the club in the summer of 2015, it was for another of European football's giants, with the Portuguese club Benfica offering him a contract. He would end up staying with the Lisbon club until 2022, spending a year on loan back in Serie A with Genoa for the 2017-18 season. He won a Primerira League title with Benfica the following season.

But Adel Taarabt was only ever able to show the promise that persuaded Spurs to take him on at 17 years of age in fits and starts. Injuries were occasionally an issue, but his combustible nature also affected the career of a player who sometimes seemed unable to contain his public pronouncements. In that respect, he certainly had a lot in common with Mario Ballotelli.