Deportivo Alavés announced the signing of Hanane Aït El Haj on 24 July.
The Women’s Africa Cup of Nations began two days later.
Her new supporters had barely had time to learn her name when the full-back provided two assists and was named Player of the Match in Morocco’s 4-0 victory over Kenya.
Four days later, she added another against Algeria.
Aït El Haj has assisted three of Morocco’s five goals at the tournament.
Her third Spanish club
Aït El Haj was born in Agadir on 2 November 1994.
She has spent most of her career with AS FAR in Rabat, winning league titles, domestic cups and the CAF Women’s Champions League.
Her time at the Moroccan club has been interrupted by two spells in Spain.
The first came during the 2020/21 season, when she joined second-tier Zaragoza CFF. She then returned to AS FAR before moving back to Spanish football to sign for Valencia in the summer of 2024.
Aït El Haj made nineteen Liga F appearances during a campaign that ended with the first relegation in the club’s history.
She returned to Rabat after that season.
Now she is moving back to Spain with Deportivo Alavés, a team who have just completed the opposite journey. Las Gloriosas finished second in Primera Federación to win promotion and are returning to the top flight after three years.
Alavés will be the third Spanish club of Aït El Haj’s career and the second she represents in Liga F.
Three assists from five goals
Her performances at this Women’s Africa Cup of Nations have demonstrated what she can bring to Alavés.
Aït El Haj started all three matches for a Morocco side that finished top of Group A with seven points and did not concede a goal.
Against Kenya, she set up both of Ibtissam Jraidi’s goals in the 4-0 victory. They were her first direct goal involvements at WAFCON.
She found Sanaâ Mssoudy in the 84th minute against Algeria for the only goal of the match. Her third assist secured Morocco’s place in the quarter-finals.
The 0-0 draw with Senegal completed a group stage in which Aït El Haj was directly involved in 60% of her country’s goals.
It was not the first time she had combined with Jraidi to score a historic goal.
At the 2023 World Cup, Aït El Haj delivered the cross that the forward headed in for Morocco’s first goal at the tournament. It secured a 0-1 victory over South Korea, also the country’s first at a World Cup.
Morocco face South Africa in Rabat on Saturday. The winners will advance to the semi-finals and qualify directly for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
When WAFCON ends, Aït El Haj will join an Alavés side who have just returned to Liga F.
She could arrive in Vitoria with three assists and her country qualified for another World Cup.
