Child of Casablanca, Naybet fell in love with football from an early age, in the streets of Derb Chorfa in particular, and his talent quickly jumped out in the eyes of the most informed. Spotted by the Star of Casablanca, he only stayed there for a week before joining Wydad Athletic Club, an emblematic formation, with Raja, from the economic capital of Morocco. Upgraded to the first team when he was still a junior, Nourredine Naybet wrote one of the most beautiful pages in the club’s history in 1989. This allowed him to become an international just one year after his debut in a season where the club won the Throne Cup and the Arab Champions League.
With his training club, Naybet will experience all possible success. The WAC, coached by the Ukrainian Yuriy Sevastyanenko, will begin a golden decade: three national championships won in 1990, 1991, then 1993, an Afro-Asian Cup and above all the club’s first Champions League. All this alongside Lahcen Abrami and other Fakhreddine Rajhi, the club’s most capped player and top scorer in the history of Botola, or the Senegalese international Moussa Ndaw, the best foreign player to have played in Morocco.
“Wydad shaped me as a player and especially as a man. I owe my success to this club, to its fans and to all the supporters of Morocco. Winning the CAF Champions League in 1992 against Sudanese team Al Hilal remains one of my favorite memories. It was our first continental title and at the time it was very difficult for Moroccan clubs to win in African competitions. We played the second leg of the final at home and King Mohammed VI (he was a prince at the time) was present when we lifted the trophy. They are beautiful memories,” he explains.
1992 will be the year of his first international competitions, the one during which he took part in the CAN, then in the Barcelona Games towards football skies.
Having left Morocco with the feeling of duty more than accomplished, here he is in Europe in 1993. At the age of 23, we are in the final moments of the Bosman judgment and the free movement of players. However, with an already solid reputation, Naybet will be opened to Jean-Claude Suaudeau’s FC Nantes in a team built around Chadian legend Japhet N’Doram but also club children such as Christian Karambeu, Patrice Loko, Reynald Pedros, Nicolas Ouedek, and a certain Claude Makelele.
Arrived at the same time as the Nigerian international Samson Siasa, member of the Super Eagles winners of the CAN 1994 and eighth finalist of the world that same year, Naybet will settle from the start as a natural leader of the Canaries. With around 40 games played, he will contribute to a 5th place in Division 1 and a semi-final of the Coupe de France.
It is the epilogue of a pivotal season for the club in transition to the famous team which will win the championship in 1995, with only one defeat, which will reach the semi-finals of the Champions League the following year, and especially who will talk about his Nantes-style football which has marked the history of the French championship.
After a season in France, Naybet would quickly arouse the interest of Carlos Queiroz’s Sporting Portugal who would pay 8 million French francs to secure his services. For two seasons, he will continue his momentum and will play a major role in the team that will win the Portuguese Cup and Supercup in 1995, which will open the doors to the Spanish Liga.
Recruited at 1.6 million euros by Deportivo La Coruña, which has been in its golden period since the beginning of the 1990s, he was among the top 3 in La Liga between 1993 and 1995, and won the Copa del Rey in 1995. Naybet will be one of the club’s flagship recruits along with Rivaldo, Jacques Songo’o, Corentin Martins and Flavio Conceçao in a team where there are stalwarts like Mauro Silva, Miroslav Dukic and Donato.
The Moroccan defender will establish himself as a benchmark for his position and will be named La Liga’s best defender three times (1998, 1999, 2000). He would also contribute to the league title in 2000 and a victory in the 100th edition of the Copa del Rey, against Real Madrid from the start of the galactic era of Zidane, Figo, Raul and company.
With impressive consistency under Javier Irureta, Deportivo would finish among the top three teams from 2000 to 2004, and finish as Champions League semi-finalists in Naybet’s final season at the club, before he left for Tottenham. Meanwhile, the selection of Morocco needed him.
2004 will be a very painful season for the Moroccan defender who lost in the CAN final against hosts Tunisia. A defeat that sounded like his last chance to win a title with the very average Atlas Lions on the international scene since the 1986 World Cup.
Naybet will nevertheless total 115 selections, 4 goals, 6 participations in the CAN (1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) and 2 in the World Cup (1994, 1998). In 2006, Naybet retired. At 36 years old, he was able to enjoy a rich career by brilliantly climbing all the levels to the top level. Nourredine Naybet is considered one of the greatest players that the African continent has given to world football to this day.
