Great Muslim football players

Major European leagues are now nourished by Muslim players. In some cases, big stars. Everyone lives their faith in a personal way. Some are more flexible and others more disciplined. 

Liverpool have Mohammed Salah of Egypt and Sadio Mané of Senegal. They follow Muslim beliefs, although in the final of the Champions League against Real Madrid in Kiev, both players decided to interrupt Ramadan to find themselves in full physical condition. 

In that same final there was Karim Benzema, a French striker of Algerian origin who plays for the Madrid club. He lives his faith in a very personal and flexible way. 

In a more radical way, Nabil El Zhar is a French-Moroccan footballer who plays for Al-Ahli Doha in the Qatar Football League. He is a full international for Morocco and has played for Liverpool and Spain, Levante, Las Palmas and Leganés; and Noussair Mazraoui, a Dutch footballer who is a Moroccan national and plays in the midfield for AFC Ajax de la Eredivisie. Lately he has been associated with AS Roma. 

Another Dutch nationalised Moroccan is Hakim Ziyech. He plays as a right winger and his current team is Chelsea FC from the English Premier League. At international level he plays with the Moroccan national team.  He played with Mazraoui at AFC Ajax and with Zakaria Labyad, also a Dutch player of Moroccan descent, who is currently with AFC Ajax. He previously played with the Netherlands U-17 team, but ended up representing the Moroccan U-23 team. All very active Muslims. 

Also Muslim are Algerian-born Riyad Mahrez, Manchester City midfielder and captain of the Algerian national team, perhaps the most sought-after Muslim player alongside Salah, and French-born Faouzi Ghoulam, who plays at left-back for Napoli in Italy's Serie A. He was linked to Atletico Madrid.

Moroccan Achraf Hakimi, former player of Borussia Dortmund, currently signed by Inter Milan for 45 million euros to Real Madrid. 

The German internationals playing for Arsenal FC in the Premier League also have Muslim roots: Mesut Özil, of Turkish origin, midfielder and right winger, Mohamed Elneny, Egyptian footballer and midfielder, and Shkodran Mustafi. Mustafi was born in Germany, of Albanian descent, and is overwhelmingly Muslim, while Christians make up about one-sixth of the population. 

Emre Can, a German midfielder of Turkish descent who also plays for the German national team, plays for Dortmund, as does Sami Khedira, another German of Tunisian descent who currently plays for Juventus in Turin. Meanwhile, Amine Harit, from Morocco, plays as a midfielder for FC Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga. 

Two other French internationals who play in the Premier League and profess the Muslim religion are Paul Pogba, midfielder for Manchester United, and N'Golo Kanté, also a midfielder for Chelsea. Pogba is a regular at the Mecca pilgrimages. He has two other footballing brothers (Florentine and Matias). The family is of Guinean descent. The Republic of Guinea is a country of more than 11 million people, 85% are Muslims.

Youssef En-Nesyri, a footballer from Sevilla, takes it in a more "relaxed" way, although he then "tries to comply with it as much as possible". The Moroccan forward of Sevilla FC is having a great season with the Andalusian team. Also in the Seville ranks is Yassine Bounou, known as Bono, the Moroccan goalkeeper. 

In the same city, Seville, but in Real Betis Balompié, plays Aïssa Mandi, Algerian defender. He is a full international for his country's national team.  

Also in the Spanish League, in Celta Vigo, there are the Turkish Okay Yukuslu, midfielder, and Emre Mor, forward born in Denmark. Both are Muslims who live their faith flexibly. 

On the other hand, Ryan Boudebouz, a French-Algerian midfielder who also played for Celta, Betis and who currently belongs to AS Saint-Étienne, although it seems that he does not count for the coach and possibly goes to Qatar, and Sofiane Boufal, a Moroccan player from Angers who also played for Celta Vigo and Southampton, follow him closely. Currently, the Tunisian player Wahbi Khazri also plays for AS Saint-Étienne in Ligue 1. 

In Italy, at Fiorentina, Franck Ribéry, a French left-winger and one of the great stars of the French national team, is currently at the end of his career. In 2002 the French footballer decided to convert to Islam by marrying his girlfriend Wahiba Belhami. He is a practising Muslim and it is common to see him praying during matches. He adopted a new name: Bilal Yusuf Mohamed, the nickname her grandmother used to call him.  

In different countries and different teams all over the world, footballers like Rachid Ghezzal, an Algerian footballer who plays in the midfield position at Beşiktas of the Turkish Super League, are playing. Moroccan Mehdi Benatia, Frenchman Sofiane Hanni, of Algerian descent, and Algerian players Baghdad Bounedjah and Yacine Brahimi play in Qatar, after playing for Portuguese Porto, Granada and French Rennes.

In Saudi Arabia, Egyptian Ahmed Hegazy, Moroccan Karim El Ahmadi, Saudis Abdullah Otayf, Salem Al-Dawsari and Nordin Amrabat, a Dutch footballer of Moroccan descent who played for Malaga C.F., Galatasaray S.K. and Leganes, among others. Amr Warda, from Egypt, plays in Greece and Fakhreddine Ben Youssef, from Tunisia, plays in Egypt.