Victor Orta has revealed he has received messages from Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani about Morocco’s World Cup star Azzedine Ounahi. The 22-year-old has been one of the ‘breakout’ players of the tournament, according to the Whites’ sporting director, helping his country to the semi-finals in Qatar.
Ounahi plays his club football in France with Ligue 1 side Angers and his talents went under the radar in the build-up to the tournament. However, he has been a key man in Walid Regragui’s side and his performances alongside the likes of Sofyan Amrabat and Selim Amallah in the middle of the park have caught the eye.
Radrizzani is one of those to have taken notice of Ounahi at the World Cup and according to Orta, he has been keen to learn more about him.
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"I’m going to be honest, I’ll mention a name - Ounahi, the Morocco number eight," Orta told Spanish news organisation Marca, as per the Yorkshire Evening Post.
"How many messages have I received about him? Even my President has messaged me! ‘Where was this guy? We haven’t seen him!’ Even the President!
“He’s probably been the breakout player, can we say that? I’ve known him for two seasons, this year he’s at Angers, and I’ve been surprised by his physical level. He’s not been like that, I’m not saying he’s been lazy but I’m saying maybe the emotion is different, maybe he feels different playing in the Morocco shirt to the Angers one, where there’s a whole country behind you, your family."
In the past, breakout players have been able to earn big moves on the back of their performances on the biggest stage of all. However, Orta has suggested that the sheer amount of information available to talent spotters and sporting directors in the modern game makes it hard to be caught completely off guard by a player.
"I’ll use an example of our own: Tyler Adams," Orta added.
"He was, for me, already having a great season at Leeds. Maybe having a good season at Leeds isn’t as in the spotlight as going to the USMNT and playing at that level of a World Cup, it’s good for us.
"I think it was more influential in the past: 1990/94/96/98/02, it was more influential because there was less information but the tsunami of information that we have, of big data, the biggest events have less influence I think. And this goes a little ‘against myself’ in terms of Cody Gakpo.
“He is definitely on another level to before but that’s not the same as it was before. Now it’s not so influential, the level of performance in the big tournaments.”
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