{"id":503330,"date":"2026-08-31T17:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/el-karouani-in-lisbon-i-didnt-need-to-think-twice-about-it\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T17:45:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T15:45:39","slug":"el-karouani-in-lisbon-i-didnt-need-to-think-twice-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/el-karouani-in-lisbon-i-didnt-need-to-think-twice-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"El Karouani in Lisbon: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t need to think twice about it&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Souffian El Karouani arrived in Lisbon late Sunday night, where he is set to finalize his move to Benfica. Speaking to BTV as he exited Humberto Delgado Airport, the 25-year-old Moroccan international left-back expressed his excitement about opening a new chapter in his career in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fantastic feeling. I am really happy to be here and eager to get started. I had the opportunity to return to Europe, and Benfica is one of the biggest clubs in Europe. So I didn&#8217;t need to think twice about it,&#8221; the Atlas Lion shared.<\/p>\n<p>El Karouani also arrives with clear ambitions. &#8220;I want to win trophies and have a good season with Benfica. It&#8217;s one of those clubs that has the obligation to win. That&#8217;s my goal,&#8221; he added, aware of the expectations surrounding the Lisbon club.<\/p>\n<p>Before heading to Portugal, the Moroccan had already spoken with Marco Silva. &#8220;I had a phone call with him. The conversation was excellent, and I told him I was looking forward to starting,&#8221; he revealed. El Karouani must now undergo medical examinations and physical tests before signing. According to A Bola, the agreement with Al-Qadsiah would involve a loan until the end of the season, with a purchase option of around 10 million euros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Souffian El Karouani arrived in Lisbon late Sunday night, where he is set to finalize his move to Benfica. Speaking to BTV as he exited Humberto Delgado Airport, the 25-year-old Moroccan international left-back expressed his excitement about opening a new chapter in his career in Europe. &#8220;It&#8217;s a fantastic feeling. I am really happy to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":503328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1478],"tags":[],"maw_player":[],"class_list":["post-503330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portugal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503332,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503330\/revisions\/503332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503330"},{"taxonomy":"maw_player","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountakhab.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maw_player?post=503330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}