No stranger to making headlines, last year, at 16 years and three days old, the Senlis native became the the youngest player to feature for the club against Faroese club KÍ in the Uefa Conference League.
In doing so, he became the youngest player ever to start a European encounter.
“It’s not normal to play like that at that age,” effused then manager Paulo Fonseca in the aftermath.
This season, Bouaddi’s feats have been consistent with a nascent career punctuated by a succession of prodigious milestones.
Just days after his star turn against Real Madrid, Bouaddi became the second youngest player – behind Camavinga, incidentally – to register an assist in Ligue 1. A Player of the Match performance against Juventus followed weeks later. By mid-November, Bouaddi had become the third-youngest player to ever feature for the French Under-21s.
While records are there to be broken, what seems to separate Bouaddi from both his peers and predecessors is an incredible aptitude for academia.
In 2023, aged 15, he participated in a public speaking contest open to players enrolled at professional academies in France, held at the Elysee Palace.
With Brigitte Macron among the crowd, Bouaddi demonstrated the poise and unassuming authority he exhibits on the pitch to take home first place.
Furthermore, last summer, he earned top marks in the French equivalent of his A-levels, sitting them a year earlier than the rest of his 2007 cohort.
From academy managers, to grass-roots coaches, a certain truism is shared by those that have crossed Bouaddi’s path during his formative years. A familiar observation occurs when many offer ‘he’s a kid with a good head on his shoulders’.
Bouaddi represents something of an anomaly. Prodigious talents are spawned far and wide, but Lille’s number 32 boasts a level of introspection and independence of thought not often seen in someone so young.
Now undertaking a degree in mathematics, his continued pursuit of academic fulfilment hints at serious reflection.
“I wanted to carry on my studies because it allows me to make the most of my free time, and learn,” said Bouaddi. “It enables me to keep my mind alert.”
Maths, as he readily admits, helps him “understand the game quicker”.
Chest puffed out, head perennially pirouetting on its axis, you feel Bouaddi is constantly surveying his surroundings, tracing the blueprint for how he can evade his opponents, and fashion space for his own.
While in-game savvy is a prerequisite for a central midfielder, it’s the player’s character that has earned him the most plaudits.
“His intelligence serves him on many levels,” declared Gerald Baticle, the man that handed Bouaddi his first call up to the France Under-21s. “He strikes the right tone, maintains the correct distance.”
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