The final whistle has sounded on Khalid Boutaïb’s career. The 39-year-old Morocco international striker has retired after spending the 2025-26 season with KAC Marrakech, closing a journey that carried him from regional football in southern France to the World Cup stage.
Boutaïb announced his decision at the end of last week, sharing highlights from his career on Instagram and describing it as the closing of a chapter. He now returns to FC Bagnols-Pont, the Regional 3 side where his football story began.
Quick facts
- Khalid Boutaïb has retired at the age of 39.
- He scored 55 goals in 186 Ligue 2 appearances across five clubs.
- His only Ligue 1 campaign came with Gazélec Ajaccio in 2015-16.
- He won 24 Morocco caps and scored nine international goals between 2016 and 2019.
- Boutaïb scored against Spain at the 2018 World Cup.
Born in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, in the Gard department, Boutaïb built most of his playing career in France. He represented nine French clubs, moving through amateur football with Uzès, Bagnols-Pont, Istres and Luzenac before establishing himself in the professional game.
His most productive period came in Ligue 2. Across spells at Gazélec Ajaccio, Strasbourg, Le Havre, Paris FC and Pau, he registered 55 goals in 186 matches.
At Strasbourg, he struck 20 times during the 2016-17 campaign, finishing as the division’s second-highest scorer. A year earlier, he had experienced Ligue 1 with Gazélec Ajaccio, scoring six goals in 31 appearances.
His form in France opened the door to Morocco’s national team. Boutaïb earned 24 caps from 2016 to 2019 and found the net nine times, becoming part of the squad that reached the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
In Morocco’s group-stage draw with Spain, which ended 2-2, he scored the opening goal. In his farewell video, Boutaïb said wearing the national shirt, representing his country and making his family proud had gone beyond anything he had imagined.
Younès Belhanda paid tribute to his former international teammate, calling Boutaïb an example of achievement and urging him to enjoy retirement. Romain Saïss said he could be proud of his route through the game, while recalling Morocco’s successful qualifying run for the 2018 World Cup.
Boutaïb also played abroad with Yeni Malatyaspor in Turkey, where he scored 17 goals in 51 matches between 2017 and 2019. He then joined Egypt’s Zamalek, scoring five times in 24 outings from 2019 to 2020.
His last stop was KAC Marrakech. He recorded one goal in 15 matches during the 2025-26 season, before bringing a long, winding career to its close back near where it started.
