What happened to QPR icon Harry Redknapp called his ‘worst professional’ | OneFootball

A look at what happened to Queens Park Rangers cult hero Adel Taarabt in the latter stages of his career.

Tales are told of cult heroes through the ages in the EFL and one man that captured the imagination perhaps like no other was the maverick talent of Adel Taarabt.

That word maverick gets thrown about, as does the term mercurial, but Adel Taarabt would be the embodiment of those adjectives throughout his football career.

They suggest a talent with the world at his feet in the sport and yet one that consistently failed to live up to expectations, for whatever reason.

Adel Taarabt straddled the categories of a player who failed to live up to his reputation but also one that put in some of the best runs of form perhaps ever seen in the Championship, while also showing flashes in the Premier League and elsewhere.

Neil Warnock adored him and Taarabt would find a home in Lisbon, too, but others could not get to grips with his character; with Harry Redknapp describing himself as his ‘worst professional’ during his managerial career.

Adel Taarabt had magic spells at QPR

Having come through the academy of Lens in Northern France, Adel Taarabt moved to London at the age of just 17 when he joined Tottenham Hotspur in January 2007.

After just seven appearances for Spurs between January 2007 and the March 2008, Taarabt would eventually depart White Hart Lane to cross London for Queens Park Rangers.

At QPR, Taarabt became a cult hero. The Moroccan was instrumental to The Hoops’ survival in the 2009-10 season, particularly following the appointment of Neil Warnock in March of that campaign.

The following season, having scored seven goals in the previous year despite inconsistency and issues off the pitch, the outspoken attacking midfielder went on to have one of the best individual seasons of any Football League player at that time.

Handed the captaincy by Warnock, Taarabt scored 19 goals and provided 17 assists in 44 games. His 36 direct goal involvements helped The R’s go from relegation battlers to title winners in just one season.

Upon returning to the top-flight, Taarabt returned to a player of fleeting moments rather than the dominant force he was in the second-tier – not helped by having the captaincy taken off him and given to Joey Barton just a few months after promotion.

Flashes of brilliance and some spells of consistency did remain, though, despite changes in management from Warnock to Mark Hughes and then to Redknapp over the next couple of years as he helped Rangers survive on the final day of the 2011-12 season with magnificent performances against Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the run in.

He remained more or less a mainstay of the QPR side that then succumbed to relegation in the 2012-13 campaign before departing – and perhaps never really rediscovering the level he had shown at QPR.

Adel Taarabt found a home at Benfica

Following QPR’s relegation, Adel Taarabt moved to fellow London club Fulham on loan but a frustrating first half of the season saw him then leave them and join Italian giants AC Milan in January.

A move to the seven-time European champions and a club of Milan’s status perhaps befitted the talent and technical ability of Taarabt and he performed well with four goals in 14 appearances in Serie A as the Rossoneri finished eighth under the management of Clarence Seedorf.

Taarabt returned to QPR for the 2014-15 season, again back under the management of Redknapp, and his relationship with the former Spurs coach continued to be a difficult one with Redknapp famously criticising his fitness levels when asked why he wasn’t being played:

Redknapp said: “Taarabt is not injured. He’s not fit. He’s not fit to play football unfortunately. He played in a reserve game the other day and I could have run about more than he did. I can’t pick him.”

Deemed unselectable by Redknapp, Taarabt made just seven Premier League appearances as QPR were relegated once more before his inevitable permanent departure that summer.

Moving to Portuguese giants Benfica as they attempted to be the latest club that could get the best out of Taarabt’s abilities, he initially struggled to get into the side with fitness concerns again hurting him.

A couple of loan stints back in Serie A with Genoa, the second of which proved more fruitful under Davide Ballardini, were eventually followed by Taarabt returning to Estadio da Luz and finally contributing – albeit in a different way.

Between 2019 and 2022, Taarabt made over 20 appearances in a top-flight league in Europe for three successive seasons – the first and only time he did so during his career.

First under Bruno Lage and then Jorge Jesus and Nelson Verissimo; Taarabt moved into a more defensive midfield role, enabling him to do less of the running he never really wanted to do throughout his career.

Still supremely talented on the ball and perhaps at the more cerebral pace of playing for one of Portugal’s ‘Os Tres Grandes’, Taarabt had finally shown himself capable of sustaining a consistently good level at a good level for the first time since those glory days at QPR in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Magic remained in the middle east from Adel Taarabt

Upon leaving Benfica in September 2022, Taarabt went on to sign for UAE Pro League outfit Al Nasr and was the star of the show for ‘Al Ameed’, as they are nicknamed.

In two and a half seasons, Taarabt moved back up the pitch and back into his free role, given license to more or less do as he pleased; and what he pleased was to score at a good rate – and some good goals to go with it, notching 34 goals in 78 appearances and double figures in each season he was there.

Taarabt then moved on to another Emirati club in January 2025, joining Sharjah alongside former Borussia Dortmund striker Paco Alcacer and coached by former Steaua Bucharest boss Cosmin Olaroiu.

Injuries prevented Taarabt from making anymore appearances after a 31-minute cameo in an AFC Champions League league phase defeat to Al Ittihad in November 2025 and he is now without a club – albeit without a formal announcement of his retirement in 37.

Perhaps destined to end up in a league where most would accept money comes first, rather than ambition and work ethic, the story of Taarabt’s career is a frustrating one for many.

It will be most frustrating to those QPR supporters who will know that their second-tier title-winning captain really could have taken a higher stage by storm had he really wanted to.