| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Yassine El Ghanassy | ||
| Date of birth | 12 July 1990 | ||
| Place of birth | La Louvière, Belgium | ||
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) | ||
| Playing position | Forward/Winger(Left/Right) | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Gent | ||
| Number | 11 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1995–1998 | CS Fayt-Manage | ||
| 1998–2008 | La Louvière | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2008 | La Louvière | 6 | (0) |
| 2008– | Gent | 86 | (8) |
| National team | |||
| 2004–2007 | Belgium U20 | 18 | (7) |
| 2011– | Belgium | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14 May 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Yassine El Ghanassy (born 12 July 1990) is a Belgian footballer of Moroccan parentage who plays as a Forward or as a left (preferred) or right Winger for Belgian Pro League side AA Gent.
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Yassine El Ghanassy was born on 12 July 1990 as the only son of the former football player Hajjaj El Ghanassy. He started playing when he was fifteen at the team Fayt-Manage in Hainaut. In his leisure time, he improved his technics as a street football player. After some years El Ghanassy made it to the youth series of La Louvière, where he got quite quickly the attention of many people. At the age of sixteen, he went to the English team Birmingham City FC. He did some tests successfully, but a transfer didn't follow. La Louvière wanted a transfer price which was too high for such a young dribbler.
In 2008 El Ghanassy made his debut in the first team of La Louvière. The team had just sacked to the third division degraded to the Third Division and was about to merge with RACS Couillet. The Marocan Belgian youth player got some playing minutes, but nevertheless left for AA Gent not long afterwards.
Although he was initially added to the youth team, he could play a few times in the Jupiler Pro League. Thanks to his creativity and drive he was being named as the successor of Bryan Ruiz, who left in the summer of 2009 for FC Twente. Because of his style of playing, he was compared many times with his predecessor.
El Ghanassy was most of all spotted as a passer, who gave the assists, but never scored himself. Only in the playoffs of 2009/10 in the match against Zulte Waregem, he scored his first goal. Since that goal he has been making many more. He made, for example, a goal in the European game of AA Gent against the Belarusian team FC Naftan Novopolotsk. It was the only goal in that game, which meant that Gent was qualified for the third qualifying round.
Meanwhile, El Ghanassy is being followed by several European top teams, such as Manchester City F.C., AC Milan, Everton FC, Sunderland A.F.C. and Olympique Lyonnais.[1]
Because of the fact that El Ghanassy has the double Belgian-Moroccan nationality, he could choose to play for both countries. He already played international youth games for both teams. El Ghanassy debuted for Belgium in a friendly match against Finland, so he would still be eligible to play for Morocco.
El Ghanassy was called up by the national coach Georges Leekens to play in the national team on 8 October 2010 and to finish his first game as international. He approved and chose, by this, for the Belgian national team (Rode Duivelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_national_football_team)
On 25 October 2010, it was revealed scouts from Celtic F.C. had watched El Ghanassy in action. His agent described him as a "magician" in an interview with STV, saying he would encourage the player to move to the Glasgow club.[2]
Reports in Scotland in May suggested that El Ghanassy has agreed a five year contract with Glasgow Celtic.
| season | team | country | division | games | goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007/08 | RAA Louviéroise | Belgium | Derde Klasse | 6 | 0 |
| 2008/09 | AA Gent | Belgium | Jupiler Pro League | 11 | 0 |
| 2009/10 | AA Gent | Belgium | Jupiler Pro League | 19 | 2 |
| 2010/11 | AA Gent | Belgium | Jupiler Pro League | 13 | 4 |
| Belgium | 49 | 6 |
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