Sofyan Amrabat is now officially a Manchester United player, joining on a season-long loan from Italian club Fiorentina.
News of the Morocco international’s move to Old Trafford for the 2023/24 campaign was initially announced on a busy transfer deadline day last Friday, and the midfielder has since arrived in Manchester for a first look around his new surroundings.
Erik ten Hag has already spoken about what Amrabat, whom he worked with at Utrecht, will bring to United and it has been announced that the 27-year-old will wear the no.4 jersey for the Reds this term.
As we now await his debut for the club - which could come in our next Premier League outing at home to Brighton on 16 September - you can get to know more about our new man by reading our rundown of his career so far…
Amrabat was born in the Dutch village of Huizen, not far east of Amsterdam, and comes from a footballing family. His older brother, Nordin, has also enjoyed a successful career in professional football and may be best known to United fans from his time in the Premier League with Watford.
Raised by parents of Moroccan descent, the siblings both represented Morocco and the Netherlands in their youth days, before each eventually going on to play for the country of their mother and father’s birth on the senior stage. Sofyan currently has 49 caps to his name.
At club level, our new signing earned his stripes in the youth ranks at FC Utrecht, having joined from Huizen-based club HSV De Zuidvogels, and was rewarded with his professional bow in November 2014 against Vitesse.
Developing into a well-rounded midfielder, with the ability to make an impact both on and off the ball, he is primed to build on an exciting relationship at United with Ten Hag, with the pair reuniting following a spell together at Utrecht.
Our manager joined the Dutch club at the end of the midfielder’s breakthrough campaign in the senior side, and they went on to work together for two years, with Amrabat playing 31 of 34 Eredivisie games in the latter of those terms, 2016/17, as Utrecht qualified for the UEFA Europa League.
The Morocco midfield man’s form for his club transferred into opportunities on the international stage too, as he made his debut for the nation in a friendly victory over Tunisia in March 2017.
At the conclusion of that campaign, Amrabat and Ten Hag parted ways to go and battle at the very top of the table in Holland: Ten Hag joined Ajax while Amrabat signed for their Dutch top-flight rivals Feyenoord.
Neither club won the Eredivisie in 2017/18, but Sofyan did lift the KNVB Cup at the end of that season, as his team - including former Red Robin van Persie and current United defender Tyrell Malacia - defeated AZ 3-0 in the final.Our new no.4 also celebrated two Johan Cruyff Shield triumphs during his time with the Rotterdam outfit before making the move to Belgian powerhouse Club Brugge in August 2018, rounding off a summer in which he played at the World Cup for Morocco.
The midfielder got a taste of the top-flight division in Belgium with 16 league appearances under his belt in 2018/19 and played one fixture of their title-winning campaign that followed before heading to Italy for the first time, on loan with Hellas Verona for 2019/20.
He helped the club record a top-half finish as a newly promoted side, receiving Verona’s Player-of-the-Season award for his performances across a league term in which he only missed four league matches.
Midway through that campaign, the Italian side exercised their option to make Amrabat’s deal permanent, and it was from there that he transferred to Fiorentina, linking up with his new club at the start of 2020/21.
Amrabat racked up 97 appearances for the Florence outfit across the last three years and came close to helping them end their two-decade trophy wait, as they reached both the Coppa Italia and UEFA Europa Conference League finals last season, before narrow 2-1 defeats to Internazionale and West Ham United respectively.
Midway through the term, Sofyan was selected by Morocco to play at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and it was there that he made perhaps the biggest impression of his career so far, as a central figure for his nation.
The Atlas Lions defied expectations by topping Group F and defeating Belgium, Portugal and Spain on their way to a fourth-place finish: their best-ever result at the tournament.
The 27-year-old is now set to write the next chapter of his story in Manchester, joining United on a season-long loan deal for 2023/24.
Fans can now order ‘Amrabat 4’ shirts on United Direct.
