Zakaria Zerouali, Moroccan footballer, died he was 33.

Zakaria Zerouali was a Moroccan football defender.
He played for the Morocco national football team.^[1]

(24 May 1978 – 3 October 2011)

Career

Zakaria Zerouali was transferred to Raja Casablanca in 2005 after his good performance with Mouloudia Oujda. He was called a few times to play for the national team and had two appearances, first in 2004 against Burkina Faso in a friendly game in Rabat and second in 2009 against Cameroon during the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers in Fes.
In May, 2010 CAF suspended Zerouali for one year from any national and international competition because he had spat and kicked at the Malawian referee Kalyoto Robert Ngosi after the end of the Champions League game between Raja Casablanca and Atlético Petróleos in Luanda where they lost by the score of 1-0. After Zerouali had died, Rachid Boussairi, ex-Chairman of the Technical Commission, said : "Zerouali told me that he unconsciously did that to the referee because the African Champions League was a dream for him, and that came after the Malawian wasn't fair with Raja Casablanca during the away match".
After the suspension Raja Casablanca didn't extend Zerouali's contract, therefore the player stayed without a club for one season. But after the team had a lot suffered from the left back position especially with the successive injuries of Hicham Mahdoufi, the club decided on June 14, 2011 to sign a two years contract with Zerouali.

Death

On September 28, 2011 Zakaria Zerouali was transferred to a hospital in Casablanca. Mr Arsi, Raja Casablanca's doctor, confirmed that Zerouali had ingested three boxes of Paracetamol in 24 hours, and that is what caused a liver toxicity.^[2]
Zerouali's health conditions were stable until the September 30th, when some dangerous sudden changes had happened and completely destroyed the liver and caused Cytolysis.
The President Mr Abdeslam Hanat said that Raja Casablanca had prepared a flight to take Zakaria Zerouali to Bordeaux, France for a surgery, but the medical staff in Casablanca couldn't allow the player transit because of that time bad health conditions.
Raja Casablanca announced that Zakaria Zerouali had died on Monday October 3, 2011 at 5 am^[3] but later Radio Mars correspondent to the team headquarters said that he died at 2 am.


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