Interview: Deportivo La Coruna’s Zakaria Eddahchouri on the street, style and Segunda – ‘A bit like Benzema’ | OneFootball

Rarely before has Spain’s Segunda been so packed with giants slugging it out in hope of promotion back to the big-time. In fact, there are times when the attendances in your midtable second division clash will outstrip those in La Liga. Not least those held at Riazor, where an average of close to 23,000 fans are attending their games, despite three years in Segunda.

Even if sometimes the weight of a club with such ballast as Depor can at times make them less agile, more difficult to turn around, it pays to have an illustrious history. That much is evidenced by the presence of Zakaria Eddahchouri in Galicia, who at 24 years of age, was born eight days before his Dutch compatriot Roy Makaay scored the second goal in a 2-0 win over Espanyol on the day Deportivo La Coruna hoisted their first La Liga title. A clean sheet, which came under the stewardship of Noureddine Naybet, a hero for the country of Eddahchouri’s father, Morocco, and part of the reason he moved to A Coruna.

“For me and my family, it was an easy decision, I love football so much. When I was young, I was always watching the Spanish league, and that was the moment when Depor was playing in the first division, so I knew the club. So when my agent came, it was an easy decision for me to say yes.”

Roy Makaay scores against Espanyol. Image via AP.

“They are players that played a couple of years ago, before my generation, but yeah my dad, when Deportivo came, they were two players that my dad mentioned. Noureddine Naybet was captain of Morocco in the good days. Roy Makaay played for Feyenoord, and I grew up about 20km from Feyenoord, so I think the two players, and the family were also, a big factor in the decision to come.”

Eddahchouri cost the Galician giants €300k from Dutch second division side Telstar, leaving them as top scorer with 17 goals in 23 games. Having lost star veteran Lucas Perez, who may as well have given Eddahchouri the lowdown on his way to PSV Eindhoven going the other direction, Deportivo invested in a goalscorer they hope to eventually fire them back to where they were when Eddahchouri became familiar with them.

Perez was an institution in the region, the prodigal son who has returned three times, and in his latest fairytale, paid half a million euros out of his own pocket to help get them back into professional football. Telstar, if you were wondering, average just over 2,500 fans every week. Eddahchouri seems unlikely to be phased by what the mortals call pressure though.

“I’m a player who loves that, and the adventure. I train as I play, I like to dare when I play, I grew up playing on the street. It’s not every day you get that pressure, so I try to enjoy it. I’m enjoying it, it’s a beautiful adventure, when you see the crowd and the stadium there with their heart and their passion,” – the bit you dream of feeling as a kid. The bit that most would dread, he barely registers. “You can call it pressure, but I wouldn’t, in the end that’s what you want as a footballer, and so I try to enjoy to the full extent.”

That confidence is present in all of his answers though, and but is most abundant when drawing a comparison between himself and someone you might be familiar with.

Eddahchouri celebrates his first goal for Deportivo. Image via Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey/JAR Sport Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images) / NurPhoto

“If you ask me if I’m worried about reaching a number of goals, I’m not concerned about that. You can compare it a bit with Benzema, I like to play well, I like to help the team in possession. He’s not a player who every game is focused on just scoring goals. And I think you can compare it with him and my way of playing. Every game I’m trying to help the team.”

Unabashed it should be said, Eddahchouri states it naturally. There’s no pretence, it doesn’t sound like planned words from the aforementioned agent, it would be unfair to call it arrogance from a player who simply believes in his talents. And there are certainly worse players to base your game off.

Depor currently sit in 11th in La Liga Hypermotion, nine points removed from the golden sixth position and the promised land of the play-offs. If they were to make a late run for promotion, something the club wants but does not want to demand at risk of vertigo, it will likely involve a starring role for winger Yeremay Hernandez. Linked to host of wealthy clubs, most prominently Chelsea, it was inevitable that the Canary Islander would come up.

“If you play on the street, you can recognise in the first training session how good a player is, but also if it clicks. I think with my abilities, it’s a very good match with Yeremay. He’s a player who comes inside and combine with others, I am a player who loves to combine and attack space, and he also has the eye to play those balls in behind.”

Yeremay Hernandez celebrates a goal. Image via LaLiga

“So in the first training session, I saw that we clicked very well, and it’s getting even better,” he says of Yeremay, who no doubt would be useful in a five-a-side too.

That appears to be the source of Eddahchouri’s confidence, growing up with a ball at his feet. The 24-year-old explains that while Segunda is more physical than its Dutch equivalent, there are similarities in the teaching of football, in what you learn at academy level. From his perspective, football education without the hard concrete grounding is missing something.

“When I look now to the youth, when I compare it to myself, I think playing on the street is the basis. When you see kids playing on the PlayStation, on the computer, it’s not good for their development. For myself, I was always playing on the street with my brothers and my friends,” a place and a scene often romanticised. But for Eddahchouri, it’s the fundamental before you think about anything else.

“And that’s the place where you develop your basic skillset, and then over the years, when you go into the academy, you can develop further. But you have to have that basis.”