Khalil Fayad was talked about last summer, during an internship in Spain, to the astonishment of Téji Savanier. “Despite his age, he carried the balls on the pitch. What he had to do, he did very well,” said the MHSC captain. The youngster has started in three of the club’s last four games Free lunch.
“It’s a good school to learn in difficulty, it tempers me mentally, it allows me to question myself. But it’s a nice baptism of fire,” says the midfielder who will play on this La Mosson pitch in his hometown on Sunday. He signed his first professional contract last March, which sparked a wave of reactions. “I had a bad life because everything the media said wasn’t necessarily true. I certainly had pressure from the managers but thanks to mister Nicollin and mister Mézy it ended very well”, says the player of Moroccan origins.
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“I really wanted to stay in Montpellier from day one,” insists Fayad, son of Mustapha, the former semi-professional player in Morocco, who believes he hasn’t yet “proved anything”. “They say I’m a nugget, that I raise expectations. But it passes through the field…”, claims the young player who is studying marketing and commerce at the same time. Fayad, being courted by the Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), joined France U19 side on Thursday, claiming he “simply refused” Moroccan requests.
With his incredible technical skills, Fayad is one of Montpellier’s biggest hopes. “Of course, I’m small (1.76m) but in modern football you have to combine technique, physicality and intensity,” stresses this Zizou, Verratti and Vieira fan, who has the confidence of his coach Romain Pitau. The young man is very “demanding” of himself. “When I’m missing something, my mind takes all the training,” he says.
