{"id":494230,"date":"2026-03-25T09:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/494230\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T09:42:09","slug":"chelsea-wonderkid-puts-in-international-man-of-the-match-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/494230\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea wonderkid puts in international Man of the Match display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>   <a class=\"fw\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=thechelseachronicle.com \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"28\" height=\"28\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/wp-content\/themes\/grv-media\/img\/google-discover.svg\" alt=\"\"\/> Add as preferred source on Google <\/a>  <\/p>\n<p>Ibrahim Rabbaj continues to make a mockery of his age group, with the 17-year-old Chelsea playmaker being named Man of the Match following a dominant display for Morocco against Tunisia.<\/p>\n<p>Ibrahim Rabbaj\u2019s trajectory at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/club\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea<\/a> has got people talking. After joining from Crystal Palace at the Under-12 level, the 17-year-old quickly earned the nickname the Moroccan Messi due to his extraordinary flair and high-volume output; unofficial academy stats once credited him with a staggering 112 goal contributions in a single season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_29371f663276dd5d-62\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/news\/chelsea-wonderkid-with-outrageous-goalscoring-record-signs-professional-contract-with-the-blues\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chelsea moved decisively to secure Rabbaj\u2019s future<\/a>, offering him a first professional contract until 2028 amid heavy interest from rival European giants. This season, he has seamlessly transitioned into the Under-18 and Under-19 squads, notably scoring in the UEFA Youth League against Barcelona and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechelseachronicle.com\/academy\/chelsea-wonderkid-scores-a-hat-trick-just-days-after-signing-his-first-professional-contract\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recording a hat-trick against Leicester<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_29371f663276dd5d-62\">While his 1.66m frame remains a talking point, he\u2019s showing there\u2019s more to football than height.<\/p>\n<p>          Who would you like to see replace Liam Rosenior if he gets sacked? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">Comment below!<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Cesc-Fabregas-Filipe-Luis-final-819x1024.png\" alt=\"Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis\" class=\"wp-image-359914\" \/>Credit: Marco Luzzani\/Wagner Meier via Getty Images       Ibrahim Rabbaj puts in Man of the Match display for Morocco U-17s<\/p>\n<p>Popular <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RisingStarXI\/status\/2036479988015288486\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a> account RisingStarXI, Ibrahim Rabbaj (17) was named the MOTM against Tunisia today in a game for the AFCON Qualifiers, a top talent.<\/p>\n<p>They also shared a video of Rabbaj going past five or six players, making comparisons to Lionel Messi. <\/p>\n<p>His dribbling ability is exactly like that of Lionel Messi, which is where he gets his nickname from.<\/p>\n<p>French outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/csport_ma\/status\/2036503797162295494\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">CSport<\/a> had this to say about his performance. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Ibrahim Rabbaj particularly distinguished himself during this match. Very active and influential in the game.\u2018<\/p>\n<p>Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Ibrahim Rabbaj continues to make a mockery of his age group, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,174223,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-494230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-ibrahim-rabbaj","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}