The year 2014 was a low point for Fulham.
The club, who had been in the Premier League since 2001, were relegated to the Championship with newly appointed (in February) manager Felix Magath unable to turn things around with just 12 games to go.
The German manager stayed on at Craven Cottage that summer, trying to reinforce his squad in order to return as swiftly as possible to England’s top-tier, and brought in a winger from FC Köln named Adil Chihi.
The Morocco international arrived on a free from the German side, but his spell with Fulham was anything but pleasurable, as he made one paltry 30 minute cameo in the whole year he was there.
Now with FSV Duisburg in Germany’s regional league, the 31-year-old sat down with Express to discuss his career, one that saw him struggle to find a club for a long spell after his release from Craven Cottage in 2015.
He said: “Felix Magath wanted to sign me in 2010 for Schalke 04, but the president Wolfgang Overath was against it. I was happy the move to Fulham had worked. Unfortunately, I hurt myself in preseason. I did play, but in September, Magath was already gone, and the new coach didn’t count on me. Since I didn’t play enough games, my contract wasn’t extended the next season”.
It’s the story of many footballers, one where a player is brought in by a manager, only for a change to take place and the new appointment preferring to use different personnel.
Unfortunately for Chihi, what happened at Fulham kept him away from the pitch for seven months until Esteghlal FC in Iran brought him for a few months, when a return to Germany with FSV Frankfurt went through in July 2016.
Six months later, he went to Morocco with Ittihad Tanger until 2018, when he once again found himself without a team for an extended period of time before his contract signing with Duisburg in September.
Chihi revealed in the same interview that prior to his move to Fulham, he had a trial with Blackpool where Paul Ince wanted to sign him, but the manager was fired before anything went through.
Talk about bad luck…
