From Dutch amateur football to QPR: Who is Nasser El Khayati?
QPR have completed the signing of Nasser El Khayati from Burton Albion. Here’s a quick guide to the Dutch forward.
Early days at PSV
Although from Moroccan heritage, El Khayati was born in Rotterdam. His teenage years were split between the junior sections of local clubs Excelsior and Leonidas before joining PSV Eindhoven’s Under-19 squad in 2007.
A year later, he moved to second-tier side Den Bosch and, after a few months in their Under-21s, went on to make his senior debut against Go Ahead Eagles. Despite only making 10 first-team appearances in two years with Den Bosch, in 2010 he was picked up by Eredivisie side NAC Breda – but was an unused substitute in the top flight just once.
On his travels
After that fleeting glimpse of the big time, El Khayati tried his luck in Cyprus with Nicosia-based Olympiakos in 2012-13 and then KV Turnhout in the Belgian third tier the following season.
It all turned around for him at the start of last season, when he went back to the Netherlands and joined another third-tier club, the amateur side Kozakken Boys.
Four years after he left NAC Breda, and almost five years since the last of his games at Den Bosch, he scored on his debut and never looked back.
• Born: 7 February 1989 (age 26), in Rotterdam
• Position: Winger/Forward
• Height: 6′ 1″ (1.84m)
• Previous clubs: 2008-10 Den Bosch (Ned), 2010-2012 NAC Breda (Ned), 2012-13 Olympiakos Nicosia (Cyp), 2013-14 KV Turnhout (Bel), 2014-15 Kozakken Boys (Ned), 2015-16 Burton Albion.
• Playing honours: League Two title-winner (Burton, 2014-15).
From Werkendam to Burton-upon-Trent
Between November 2014 and January 2015, El Khayati scored 10 goals in eight games, and his form was starting to bring him to the attention of scouts.
He had a trial at Reading, who chose not to sign him, but he impressed countryman Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink when he turned up at Burton Albion.
He signed for them in the final days of last January’s transfer window, making his debut as a late substitute in a 3-1 win at Cheltenham Town.
He scored his first goal for the Brewers on his fourth appearance, at Dagenham & Redbridge, and added further strikes against Southend and Tranmere as promotion was earned.
This season
El Khayati has improved with the step up in standard – turning last season’s one in six goal ratio into one in three.
His eight league goals have earned Burton 11 points as League One’s surprise packages show no sign of halting their bid for back-to-back promotions, under Hasselbaink’s successor Nigel Clough.
Premier League ambition
El Khayati’s rapid rise looks like taking him from an amateur in the Dutch third tier to a professional in the English Championship in the space of 12 months.
But he does not want to stop there. In an interview with the Dutch press last November, he professed his love for boyhood heroes, Feyenoord, but also suggested he wanted to follow Hasselbaink’s lead by making it big in England, adding: “Within 18 months, I will be in the Premier League”.
