Yassine Bounou, a professional Moroccan soccer goalkeeper, started his career at the Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca School, and graduated in all age groups of the club, until he reached the first team with which he won the local league championship in the 2009/2010 season, and also reached the final of the African Champions League. 2011.
He moved to the Spanish League in 2012, and played with a number of Spanish clubs in the first and second sections, the last of which was the Seville club, for which he plays for a contract that extends to the year 2025, and at the same time he is considered the first goalkeeper for the Moroccan national football team, and he dreams of writing history in the Qatar World Cup. .
Birth and upbringing
Yassin Bono was born on April 5, 1991, in the Canadian city of Montreal, to Moroccan parents from the city of Fez.
His father is a state engineer and a former professor at the Hassania School of Public Works.
He returned with his family to Morocco in his childhood, and they settled in the Mars Al-Sultan area in the city of Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco, and there his sports journey began.
Yassin Bono is fluent in four languages: Arabic, English, Spanish and French. He is married and has one child.
Scientific study and training
Bono's passion for football appeared from a young age, when he was playing it with his neighborhood friends, so his father enrolled him in the Moroccan Football Club Wydad School in Casablanca, when he was 8 years old.
Two years later, he participated in the Casa Cup competition.
Thanks to his quick reflexes, and his tall stature compared to his teammates;
The coach of the team put him in the goalkeeper position.
Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou (French)
And the child Bono began to pave the way for his future in the world of football, so he began to regularly watch videos of great international goalkeepers, such as: Italian Gianluigi Buffon and Dutchman Edwin van der Sar.
Bono spent more than a decade in the Wydad Sports Club, and graduated in all its age groups, until he reached the first team, in conjunction with his academic studies in the schools of the city of Casablanca.
Sports experience with teams
When Bono reached the age of 18, the French club OGC Nice expressed his desire to include him in its ranks in 2009, but the financial demands of Wydad Sports Club prevented that.
In the 2009/2010 season, Bono joined the first team of the Moroccan club Wydad, when he was 19 years old, as the second goalkeeper, behind Nader Lamyaghri, who was the first goalkeeper for the Casablanca club at the time.
Bono remained on the bench throughout the season.
Yassine Bounou played his first match with Wydad Athletic Club in front of 80,000 fans on November 12, 2011, in the return match for the CAF Champions League final at Stade Rades, against Tunisian Esperance, after the team's main goalkeeper, Nader Lamyaghri, was injured.
Tunisia's Esperance Club won the title after the end of the match, with a score of 1-0.
On November 21, 2011, Bono played his first match in the professional league championship in Morocco against the New Defense Club Hassani, and conceded the only goal in the match.
Then he participated in 8 league matches, before the goalkeeper returned to Miagari from his injury to resume his official career again.
Yassine Bono during training at Al-Duhail Stadium in Qatar 2022 (French)
And with the end of the football season in June 2012, Bono's contract with Wydad ended, which finished third in the standings that season, which prompted Bono to search for another destination in order to change the atmosphere and professionalism in Europe.
On June 15, 2012, Bono signed a one-year contract with the Spanish club Atletico Madrid, for an amount of 360,000 euros, with the option of two additional years, as a third goalkeeper behind Thibaut Courtois and Daniel Aranzubia, noting that his salary with the Spanish team is less than his salary in his former club.
Bono played most of his matches in the reserve team for Atletico Madrid, which plays in the third division, and in his first season with the Spanish team, he played 24 matches in the third division;
But he spent most of his time on the bench in the first team, to be ready in case one of the goalkeepers got injured.
The first team of Atletico Madrid managed to win the Spanish Championship 2013/2014 season, and reach the Champions League final under the leadership of Diego Simeone on May 24, 2014, against Real Madrid, a match in which Yassin Bono sat on the bench for 90 minutes.
Thibaut Courtois and Daniel Aranzubia left Atletico Madrid during the summer transfer period of 2014, and Yassin Bono rose to the first team as a second goalkeeper after goalkeeper Jan Oblak, but he did not get the opportunity to play with the team, which aroused his displeasure and demanded that his team leave for a team that provides him with the opportunity to play. An official goalkeeper, especially after the high levels he presented in the reserve team, which made a number of Spanish clubs that play in the second division want to include him and benefit from his services.
Bono was loaned twice to Spanish club Real Zaragoza, during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 football seasons, and each time he played nearly 20 matches in the Spanish second division.
Yassine Bono in the Canada-Morocco match on December 1, 2022 (French)
Then he moved to Girona FC on July 12, 2016, when he signed a 3-year contract, and Bono played a major role in the club's rise to the first division, "La Liga", 87 years after its founding.
After the end of Yassin Bono's contract with Girona in 2019, he was loaned to Seville for one season with the option to buy his contract, on September 2, 2019, to play as the team's second goalkeeper after the Czech goalkeeper Tomasz Vaclik.
And when Vaklik was injured in the middle of the 2019-2020 season, Yassin Bono had a full opportunity to play as the team's main goalkeeper in the remaining matches of the second part of the season.
He finished his first season with Seville in fourth place in La Liga, which gave him the opportunity to play in the Champions League in the 2020-2021 season.
On the fourth of September 2020, the Seville club bought Bono's contract for 4 million euros, then the contract was extended until June 2025 with an increase in the salary, after the great levels that the Moroccan international goalkeeper has come to present with the Andalusian club.
Yassin Bono played his official match in the European Super Cup against FC Bayern Munich on September 24, 2020, and conceded two goals, and his team lost.
In February 2021, Bono entered the history of the Andalusian club after he kept a clean sheet for 528 minutes in the Spanish League, surpassing the record held by Portuguese goalkeeper Beto by 516 minutes, during the 2014/2015 season.
Yacine Bounou in one of the matches of the 2021 African Cup of Nations (French)
Sports experience with the national team
Yassin Bono played several international matches with different age groups for the Moroccan national team between 2011 and 2012, and participated in the 2012 Olympic Games in London with the Moroccan Olympic team.
In November 2012, he was summoned for the first time to the first Moroccan national football team, by coach Rachid Taoussi, to participate in a match on November 14, 2012 against the Togo national team, but he remained on the bench.
During this period, Benito Floro, the coach of the Canadian national team, contacted Yacine Bono to represent the Canadian national team, given that Bono holds both Moroccan and Canadian nationalities, but he refused and said in press statements, “My dream has always been to play for Morocco. I played in all age groups of the Moroccan national team, and it was natural My dream is to play for the Atlas Lions."
Bono played his first match with the Moroccan national team on August 14, 2013 against Burkina Faso at Ibn Battuta Stadium in Tangiers, and it was a friendly match that the Atlas Lions lost 1-2.
After that, Bono participated with the Moroccan national team in several competitions, and he fought with him 3 copies of the African Nations Cup in the years 2017, 2019 and 2022, and two copies of the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.
Bono became the official goalkeeper of the Moroccan national football team, and made great achievements with him, most notably qualifying for the second round of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar at the head of Group F, which includes strong teams, Belgium, Croatia and Canada.
Yassine Bounou in the Morocco-Belgium match (Reuters)
Awards and titles
Yassin Bounou won several titles with the teams and teams he played with, and several titles and awards on a personal level.
Awards and titles with teams:
Moroccan Professional League Championship title with Wydad Sports Club, season 2009/2010.
The Spanish League title with Atletico Madrid in the 2013/14 season.
Spanish Super Cup with Atletico Madrid 2013/14 season.
European League title with Sevilla FC in 2020.
Personal awards and titles:
Best African Player of the Month for November in the Spanish La Liga by France Football magazine in 2018.
He was selected in the model team by the French magazine "France Football" in 2018.
Bono was named the best goalkeeper in the UEFA Europa League 2019-2020 season
Selected in the European League Model Team 2019-2020.
He won the title of best African player in the Spanish League “La Liga” season 2021-2022.
He won the Zamora Prize in 2022.
Selected in the Model Team by the CIES Football Observatory.
He won the award for the best Moroccan goalkeeper abroad by the Moroccan Federation of Professional Footballers.
France Football named him the best goalkeeper in the world.
Yassine Bounou, goalkeeper of the Moroccan national team (social networking sites)
Record numbers
Yassine Bounou achieved several records, including:
The first Arab goalkeeper to win the European League title.
The first Arab and African goalkeeper to score a goal in the five major leagues.
The first Arab goalkeeper to be nominated for the France Football magazine award for the best goalkeeper in the world.
The first goalkeeper in the history of the Spanish club Sevilla to score a goal in the Spanish League "La Liga".
The first goalkeeper in the history of Spanish club Sevilla to win the Zamora Award.
The goalkeeper contributed the most goals in the Spanish League in the 21st century, with 3 goals.
The goalkeeper kept the most clean sheets in 2021 with the Spanish club Sevilla, for 557 minutes.
The goalkeeper kept the most clean sheets in Europe in 2021 in 32 matches.