On his day, Adel Taarabt was one of the most wonderful players to watch in English football, so we’ve put together some of his best video highlights.
Taarabt scored some goals that simply cannot be described – they must be watched, studied, and cherished to appreciate the pure genius involved.
Best Adel Taarabt Video Highlights
Adel Taarabt is responsible for one of the best nutmegs in Premier League history, and he did it at 18 years old.
On August 18, 2007, Derby County visited White Hart Lane for a Premier League game against Tottenham, and Taarabt did Craig Fagan dirty.
The nutmeg was so clean, his Spurs teammate Anthony Gardner couldn’t help but react.
Fast forward a few more years, and Taarabt is playing for QPR. On Dec. 26, 2010, the Moroccan showed off some fancy footwork and netted the ball from well outside the box against Swansea City in the Championship. It’s a trademark Taarabt goal, fit with a nutmeg, an exuberance of skill, and a goal from a long way out.
Just handful of weeks later on Jan. 23, 2011, Taarabt produced two more unreal moments to lift Rangers to victory.
With his team down a goal at home, Taarabt made something out of nothing early in the second half, splitting two defenders and nestling the ball into the back corner of the net, to produce the equalizer.
But he wasn’t done. About 30 minutes later with the match still knotted at 1-1, Taarabt played a pearl of a ball with the outside of his boot to his teammate Wayne Routledge, who made a smart run into the box and had a tidy finish of his own to propel QPR into a lead it would not relinquish.
After the game, QPR manager Neil Warnock expressed just how special Taarabt was.
“He thinks he should be playing for Real Madrid,” Warnock told Barney Ronay of The Guardian. “And he could play for them, but first of all he’s got to help me finish my career in the right way. Either goal was fit to win a game today. You’re going to get frustrated with Adel at times but you couldn’t see a better pass for the goal in any league anywhere in the world.”
By the 2012-13 season, Taarabt and QPR had been promoted to the Premier League. In a game at Loftus Road against London rival Fulham, Taarabt scored a brace in a 2-1 victory, and the game-winning goal was one for the ages.
This is just a taste of some of Adel Taarabt’s finest highlights on the pitch. If you want more of his unreal abilities, then I have seven minutes in heaven for you.
You can also enjoy Warnock explaining how he was able to get the best out of Taarabt while the pair were at QPR.
Taarabt left QPR and England in 2015 and signed with Benfica in Portugal. After some tumultuous times in his career, he solidified his spot in the Benfica senior team and has made 101 appearances for the club dating back to 2018 (as of Nov. 4, 2021).
