Do we like Achraf Hakimi?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Not much on record about his views, real community work off the pitch, and a serious trial still ahead that he denies.
Hakimi was born in Madrid to a Moroccan family that had migrated to Spain, with a father who was a street vendor and a mother who worked as a domestic worker. He joined Real Madrid's academy at eight, made his first-team debut in 2017, then went via Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan, where he won Serie A, to Paris Saint-Germain. He chose to play for Morocco, and was central to their 2022 World Cup semi-final run, a first for an African or Arab nation.
The cloud over him started in February 2023, when a woman, then 24, reported him to police in the Paris region, accusing him of rape. Nanterre prosecutors opened an investigation, and in February 2026 his case was sent to trial. Nothing has been proven: this is an allegation, and no court has made a finding on it.
Hakimi has denied it from the start. On Canal+ in 2025 he said: “I know I did nothing, and I would never do such a thing.” He has alleged attempted extortion, and the woman's lawyer rejected that as “a familiar tactic in sexual violence cases.” That's the shape of it: two very different accounts, to be tested in court.
On the harm test, we found nothing: no campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy talk, no dodgy company. To be fair, the coverage we found is almost entirely about the court case, so what he thinks on most issues is simply not on record. Absence of evidence isn't a tick, but it isn't a mark against him either.
The latest step came in September, when the Court of Cassation turned down his final appeal against going to trial before the Hauts-de-Seine criminal court. His lawyer said the court did not look at the substance of the allegations and that he has “nothing to hide.” The woman's lawyer said her client will fight to the end and hopes the trial can help other women.
Off the pitch there's real good. After the 2023 earthquake his foundation ran a week-long caravan in Taroudant, with workshops and football for kids, and he led it in person. In November 2025 he was named African Player of the Year and dedicated the trophy to “strong men and women that have dreams in Africa.”