Khalid Boulahrouz

Khalid Boulahrouz (born 28 December 1981) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defender.

Nicknamed "The Cannibal" for his ability to "eat up" the opposition, Boulahrouz was noted for his technical ability, tackling and versatility in defence.

He played top-flight football in the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal and Denmark.

He began his professional career in the Dutch Eredivisie for RKC on 9 March 2002, against Heerenveen.

A full international from 2004 to 2012, he earned 35 caps and was included in the Dutch squads for two World Cups and two European Championships.

Boulahrouz was born in Maassluis, Netherlands to a family of Moroccan descent.

He has eight siblings.

As a youngster he went to the youth academies of Ajax and Haarlem.

When he was sixteen his father died and he had to take responsibility for his family.

After playing two seasons for RKC he moved to Hamburg to play in the German Bundesliga at the start of the 2004–05 season.

While at Hamburg, he earned his nickname "Khalid der Kannibale" ("Khalid the Cannibal") for his ability to eat up the opposition.

This is illustrated by the number of cards he received – 16 yellows and three reds in two seasons at the club.

He was also part of a defence that conceded the fewest goals in the 2005–06 Bundesliga season: 30 goals in 34 games.

In December 2006, he married Sabia Thele.

On 18 August 2006, Chelsea agreed a fee with Hamburg to sign Boulahrouz.

The fee was thought to be around £8.5 million (€12 million).

After Chelsea's opening game of the 2006–07 season, manager José Mourinho confirmed that the club had signed Boulahrouz but were waiting for his international clearance to be finalised, before speaking of the potential roles Boulahrouz would have in the side.

Mourinho stated "in a short squad and in a country where you can have only 16 players for a match, it’s important to have cover for many positions."

On 21 August 2006, Chelsea completed the signing of Boulahrouz.

Six days later, he made his Premiership début against Blackburn Rovers.

He wore the number 9 shirt, previously occupied by Hernán Crespo – this is an unconventional number for a defender, being traditionally associated with strikers, but was given to him just because it happened to be one of the numbers not currently allocated to a player by Chelsea at the time of signing.

Boulahrouz made a promising start to his Chelsea career, featuring prominently in high-profile games against Liverpool and Barcelona.

However, Boulahrouz gradually dropped out of favour.

Boulahrouz was out for a lengthy period of time after a knee injury, followed by a shoulder injury while playing in an FA Cup tie against Norwich City.

Boulahrouz eventually dropped out of contention as the season wound down, with John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho as the first-choice defensive pairing.

When Carvalho was injured, manager Mourinho paired Terry with Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien.

Boulahrouz joined Spanish club Sevilla on a year-long loan for the 2007–08 season.

However, he played just six games for them and was deemed surplus to requirements.

While Boulahrouz was in Switzerland preparing for the Euro 2008 quarter finals against Russia, his then wife Sabia gave birth to a prematurely born daughter Anissa who died in a Lausanne hospital.

He opted to play against Russia a few days later, during which the Dutch team wore black armbands in his daughter's memory.

He returned to Chelsea in 2008 but was not given a squad number and made no appearances.

On 21 July 2008, Boulahrouz moved to VfB Stuttgart for a fee of around €5 million.

He struggled in his first three seasons.

The couple has a second daughter, Amaya (born March 2010) and a son, Daamin (born 30 January 2011).

Early in the 2011–12 Bundesliga season, however, Khalid became a regular in the starting line-up.

The 29-year-old defender had his 100th cap in the top German league on 17 September 2011 at SC Freiburg.

Two weeks later, Boulahrouz scored his first goal (only his second in the Bundesliga) for Stuttgart on 30 September 2011.

In January 2013 the couple announced their separation.

In his youth Boulahrouz played consecutively for Excelsior Maassluis, DSOV, Ajax, Haarlem and AZ.

After a difficult period playing for different clubs, he finally found some stability at Waalwijk, where coach Martin Jol gave him the confidence he had been looking for.