Hassam Hakimi, Achraf Hakimi’s father, gave an interview to Cadena SER.
He discussed his first year living in Spain:
“I spent a very bad year, without work and without speaking Spanish. I wanted to go back. But little by little things started to go well, I met my wife, we got married. Life. I was a street vendor. My wife, cleaning houses.”
Hassam Hakimi also revealed that he wanted his son to play for Real Madrid:
“He tried out for Atlético, they wanted to sign him. They gave him a contract, but we said no, because that week we had an appointment with Real Madrid. I preferred him to sign for Real Madrid.”
Hassam Hakimi also talked about his son’ experience in the Spanish national team setup:
“With the U19s they called him to play a match in Fuenlabrada. As soon as he left, he said he didn’t like it. At that time he was already going to Morocco a lot. He comes out and says ‘I’m not coming back’. I don’t know what happened. He said ‘I don’t like it’. In the car he told me he wasn’t coming back, but he didn’t tell me why. I leave my son be free to decide for himself.”
“I thank Spain for everything, I have never said anything bad about Spain. But I prefer him to play for Morocco. We have a community, when we go down we see that people know us. They tell us ‘don’t be stupid, come to your country to see your roots’. My son was born here, he grew up here. He is Spanish and feels Spanish,” he added.
GSFN | Tom Cserép
