Tahar El Khalej (born 16 June 1968 in Marrakech

Marrakech

Marrakech or Marrakesh , known as the "Ochre city", is the most important former imperial city in Morocco's history...

) is a retired Moroccan

Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

 footballer.

Club career

El-Khalej played for several clubs, including UD Leiria

UD Leiria

União Desportiva de Leiria, commonly known as União de Leiria , is a Portuguese football club based in Leiria, central Portugal. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Portuguese first division, holding home matches at Municipal da Marinha Grande, with a 6,000-seat capacity.-Brief...

 and Benfica

SL Benfica

Sport Lisboa e Benfica , commonly known as simply Benfica or occasionally as Benfica Lisbon, is a Portuguese multi-sports club based in Lisbon. Although they successfully compete in a number of different sports, Benfica is mostly known for its association football team...

 in Portugal, and for Southampton

Southampton F.C.

Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...

 and Charlton Athletic

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

He joined Southampton for £350,000 in March 2000 as Glenn Hoddle

Glenn Hoddle

Glenn Hoddle is an English former footballer and manager who played as an attacking midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, AS Monaco, Chelsea and Swindon Town and at international level for England....

's first signing for his new club, although the deal had already been arranged by Dave Jones. He scored on his debut in a 7–2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club , commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, north London. The club's home stadium is White Hart Lane....

 on 11 March 2000. He faced stiff competition as a central defender from Claus Lundekvam

Claus Lundekvam

Claus Lundekvam is a former Norwegian footballer, who spent most of his career at English side Southampton. He played for Southampton in the 2003 FA Cup Final against Arsenal .-Playing career:...

 and Dean Richards

Dean Richards (footballer)

Dean Ivor Richards was an English footballer who played as a defender. He began his career at hometown club Bradford City before a four year stay with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He left to play Premier League football with Southampton and finally Tottenham Hotspur...

, and was later employed in a midfield role. In all he made 65 appearances for the Saints, scoring four goals.

One of his more notable moments was a reckless lunge on Kieron Dyer

Kieron Dyer

Kieron Courtney Dyer is an English footballer who plays for Queens Park Rangers. Born in Ipswich, he is an attacking midfielder who played youth football for his home club before going on to make nearly 100 league appearances for the club's first team...

, where he earned a straight red card. Dyer was injured for months afterwards and threatened Tahar with legal action if Dyer had missed the 2002 World Cup

2002 World Cup

2002 World Cup may refer to:*Alpine skiing – 2002 Alpine Skiing World Cup*Athletics – 2002 IAAF World Cup*Field Hockey:** 2002 Men's World Hockey Cup** 2002 Women's World Hockey Cup...

.

In January 2003, el-Khalej moved to Charlton Athletic, before returning to Morocco at the end of the 2002–03 season.

International career

He played for the Morocco national football team

Morocco national football team

The Morocco national football team , nicknamed أسود الأطلس , is the national team of Morocco and is managed by Eric Gerets. Winners of the African Nations Cup in 1976, they were the first African team to win a group at the World Cup, which they did in 1986, finishing ahead of Portugal, Poland, and...

 and was a participant at the 1994 FIFA World Cup

1994 FIFA World Cup

The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...

 and at the 1998 FIFA World Cup

1998 FIFA World Cup

The 1998 FIFA World Cup, the 16th FIFA World Cup, was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. France was chosen as host nation by FIFA on 2 July 1992. The tournament was won by France, who beat Brazil 3-0 in the final...

.

Retirement

El Khalej was the president of Kawkab Marrakech

Kawkab Marrakech

Kawkab Athletic Club of Marrakech is a Moroccan football club based in Marrakech.The club was founded in 1947.-Honours:*Moroccan League First Division: 2*Moroccan Cup: 6*CAF Cup: 1-Performance in CAF competitions:...

 in 2005–06 when they played in the Moroccan 2nd division

GNF 2

GNF 2 , is the second division of the Moroccan football league, behind the Botola, the highest football league in Morocco. It features 19 teams across the country who compete for the top two positions in the competition which at the end of the season allows them promotion to the Botola...

, achieving promotion to the Moroccan first division before he left the club.

External links