Free from Wydad, Ziyech signs with Botafogo to boost Brazilian champions

Hakim Ziyech will join Botafogo, Brazil champions and Copa Libertadores winners in 2024, after being released from his contract at Wydad Casablanca. According to L’Équipe, the two parties have agreed on a deal running until December 2028, and the 33-year-old Moroccan midfielder is expected in Rio de Janeiro early next week to sign and be officially presented.

Formed at Ajax Amsterdam, Ziyech has had multiple experiences in recent years — Chelsea in the Premier League, Galatasaray in Turkey, Al-Nassr in Qatar, then Wydad Casablanca in his home country — without ever establishing himself long-term at any of these clubs. Brazil therefore represents a new chapter in a particularly nomadic career.

His arrival comes at a delicate moment for Botafogo, who sit in a modest thirteenth place after twenty-four league matches, far from the heights reached last season. The club is banking on the Moroccan’s international experience to turn things around.

On the international stage, Ziyech was one of the architects of Morocco’s historic semi-final run at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Excluded from the 2026 World Cup squad, he approaches this new Brazilian adventure without the label of a future international, but with the baggage of a player who has competed at the highest level of European football for a decade.