• Ed DoveJun 3, 2025, 01:02 AM
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      Ed Dove is a writer and scout who has a deep and enduring passion for African sport, politics and literature. Instagram: @EddyDove22, Facebook: @EddyDoveAfrica
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Achraf Hakimi made history when he became the second African player to win the UEFA Champions League with two clubs, prompting the question: Does his standing in the continent’s pantheon deserve re-evaluation as a result?

The Morocco international was one of Paris Saint-Germain‘s star performers as they eviscerated Internazionale on Saturday, opening the scoring for Luis Enrique’s side to set them en route to a one-sided triumph that secured their first European Cup.

Hakimi’s 12th-minute finish set the tone for PSG’s display, as he attacked the box from deep, and received the ball from Désiré Doué following a lightning one-touch interplay between the vibrant young wideman and the visionary Vitinha in midfield, before thumping home beyond Yann Sommer.

Hakimi became the first player to score against a former club in a UCL final, but he opted not to celebrate his goal, although his hands raised in apology to the Inter fans suggested he was already acutely aware of the gulf in quality between his former and current employers on the day.

It was a moment that encapsulated PSG’s intensity, their urgency, their youthful exuberance, and the technical mastery that Enrique has firmly entrenched within this squad. There’s a unity as well, both in terms of the personnel and the tactical schema, with movement off the ball — notably from Fabián Ruiz, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Hakimi, powering beyond Doué — proving all too much for the beleaguered Inter.

The goals piled up, and it became increasingly apparent that there would be no summoning of the Inter spirit that saw them past Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The Italian side proved to be exhausted — broken, even — as it dawned on their supporters just how overmatched they were against Enrique’s youthful champions elect.

While Inter’s race was clearly run, Hakimi’s energy proved boundless as he ran at Federico Dimarco with the relentlessness of a player determined to finally end his club’s long — and at times, agonising — wait for a UCL title.

He was at the heart of a sublime team performance, taking more touches than any other player on the pitch (93), and creating two goal-scoring chances. Doué was outstanding, no doubt, but the space he enjoyed was often facilitated by Hakimi’s decoy runs out wide, which left Dimarco caught in two minds and increasingly indecisive as the French star increasingly grew into the occasion.

“One Champions League for history,” Hakimi posted on his social media handles after the match, looking back on 12 months in which he’s also won Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Trophée des Champions with PSG, and the Olympic bronze medal he picked up with Morocco at the Paris 2024 Games.

The past 12 months have been the peak year of Hakimi’s career to date, with major contributions coupled with genuinely historic achievements in the biggest fixtures of all.

The UCL was the 10th honour of his four-season stint at the Parc des Princes, with the 26-year-old winning the French title in every campaign to date. It was also his second UCL title — seven years after his first, with Real Madrid when they defeated Liverpool in Kyiv, although it’s worth noting that he wasn’t in the matchday squad as Gareth Bale‘s heroics won that day. Nonetheless, still a teenager, he picked up a medal during his breakout season as a professional after featuring twice in Europe.

Then a peripheral figure, taking his first steps in the sport, his pedigree and potential was clear, and he was fast-tracked into Morocco’s 2018 FIFA World Cup squad before embarking on a two-year loan spell with Borussia Dortmund to refine his rougher edges.

Leaving Madrid, the city where he was born, was a brave move, but Hakimi has blossomed into one of the world’s finest full backs, and Saturday’s success means he will be Mohamed Salah‘s main rival in the voting for CAF’s 2025 African Footballer of the Year award.

Before PSG’s rampant triumph in Munich, only one African player — Samuel Eto’o — had conquered Europe with two clubs. Eto’o, considered by many to be the continent’s greatest player of all time, was part of the magnificent Barcelona generation that won the title in 2006 and in 2009 — defeating Arsenal and Manchester United respectively — before achieving success with Jose Mourinho’s Inter in 2010.

The 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons were among the finest in Eto’o’s career, for the unprecedented European treble in back-to-back campaigns, and for his specific role in the triumphs.

He was among the goal-scorers — bagging a 10th-minute opener — as Barça defeated United in Rome, then, a year later, in the colours of Inter, he was reinvented as a disciplined right-sider, given a strict defensive brief by Mourinho, and requested to sacrifice his own quest for goals and glory for the collective good.

It was a magnificent chapter in Eto’o’s career, as Bayern Munich were dispatched in Madrid, with the African legend — in a moment that never gets the recognition it deserves — playing a major part in Diego Milito’s second goal by taking Holger Badstuber out of the game and allowing the Argentina forward to kill the contest.

Eto’o’s third Champions League title, with a second club, is an achievement almost unparalleled in football history, let alone among African players.

Of course, the current Cameroon Football Federation president did so much more in his career — a pair of Africa Cup of Nations titles, Olympic gold, domestic successes with Barcelona, Inter and Mallorca, goals galore — but his achievements at the pinnacle of the European club game weigh heaviest in his favour when debates about the continent’s all-time greats are laid out on the table.

The likes of Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré, Salah, Riyad Mahrez and Sadio Mané each had a moment in the Champions League — each winning one title — but none enjoyed multiple triumphs, none shaped multiple finals quite like the Cameroon icon.

Hakimi may not be perceived at this level, but his supreme display against Inter provided a further reminder of his status as a genuine big-game player for club and country.

As well as scoring in the final, he also scored PSG’s winner in the semifinal second leg against Arsenal, and in the quarterfinal against Aston Villa. Only Mané had previously achieved this from an African perspective, and his final goal against Hakimi’s Real in 2018 was in a losing effort.

Hakimi had a hand in 19 goals across Ligue 1 and the Champions League this season, as well as a strike in the French Cup final victory over Stade de Reims, and his defensive fundamentals have continued to improve under Enrique.

The defender has been named in the UCL and Ligue 1 Teams of the Season, and expect more honours to follow. Attacking players and central midfielders typically receive the lion’s share of the attention and the plaudits, but Hakimi’s body of work ought to fast be establishing him among the continent’s true greats.

Few others have made this level of impact at the business end of European competition, amassed this club honours haul, and been established as one of the best in his position — arguably No. 1 — for several campaigns.

At 26, Hakimi has now conquered Europe as a senior player, a key protagonist in a side that wrote history in more ways than one; with the Nations Cup on home soil later this year, the Moroccan appears primed to establish himself in the top tier of African football’s all-time greats.