Rachid Bouaouzan

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Personal information
Rachid Bouaouzan
Full name	Rachid Bouaouzan
Date of birth	February 20, 1984 (1984-02-20) (age 24)
Place of birth	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Playing position	Winger
Club information
Current club	Wigan Athletic
Number	26
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2003-2007 2007-	Sparta Rotterdam Wigan Athletic	71 (4) 0 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 30/8/2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Rachid Bouaouzan (born 20 February 1984) is a Dutch-Moroccan football player who currently plays for Wigan Athletic. Bouaouzan is a winger who was born in Rotterdam and made his debut in professional football, being part of the Sparta Rotterdam squad in the 2003-04 season.

In his second season, while playing in the Eerste Divisie Bouaouzan reached the Dutch headlines due to a heavy foul on Niels Kokmeijer, his opponent playing for Go Ahead Eagles on December 17, 2004. Kokmeijer's leg was broken badly and was forced to retire from professional football. Sparta Rotterdam suspended Bouaouzan for the rest of the season, which was more than the 10 match ban the KNVB awarded him. Besides that he was taken to court by the Dutch government for battery, a unique moment in Dutch football history. Bouaouzan was charged with a conditional punishment of six months in jail. In April 2008 the highest Dutch court changed this into a unconditional punishment and Bouaouzan has to stop his career and go to jail for 6 month.

At the end of the season Sparta Rotterdam qualified for the play-offs where Bouaouzan returned on the pitch. In the last and final play-off match Bouaouzan scored Sparta's winning goal over Helmond Sport securing them a spot in the Eredivisie for 2005-06. In that season he was boo-ed by almost every crowd in the country, however in the 2006-07 season this was no longer the case.

Bouaouzan has paticiped with the Moroccan national team in the preparation in October, 2006 at Holland. He has also played for the Dutch U21-team and is still eligible to play for both national teams.

Rachid signed a three year contract with Wigan Athletic in August 2007. The transfer fee is rumoured to be in the region of £300,000. He has however not played yet because of a suspended prison sentence because he apparently broke a player's leg in a Eredivisie match in 2004.