Hicham Zerouali

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Hicham Zerouali (17 January 1977 - 4 December 2004) was a Moroccan footballer who was with Aberdeen Football Club for two seasons between 2000 and 2002. The striker was very much a fan favourite while with Aberdeen and scored 13 goals for the club.

A flamboyant and eccentric character, 'Zero' (as he was known to the Aberdeen fans) always had a trick up his sleeve and was never shy to go for an overhead kick or a turn of skill. He famously wore the shirt number '0' in his first full season at Aberdeen and in one of his more memorable outings scored a hat-trick against Dundee F.C.

In 2000, Hicham was injured during a match against Motherwell, and subsequently missed out on a place at the Sydney Olympic Games.

After falling out of favour at Aberdeen, Zerouali moved to play his football in the United Arab Emirates with the team Al-Nasr for a year, before returning to live in his home country of Morocco in 2003, signing for the football team FAR Rabat.

Zerouali was capped 17 times for the Morocco national team and scored three goals. He featured for Morocco in the African Nations Cup in Mali in 2002, and scored two goals in a 2-1 win over Burkina Faso. He also played in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Sadly, Zerouali was killed in a car accident in Rabat in December 2004 aged 27. Just the previous day Saturday he had scored two goals in a league game for his club. He is survived by a daughter to his wife in Aberdeen.