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Last 24 months · all competitions
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5,703 min · 69 apps · 64 starts
Squad importance
Current squad importance over the club’s last 40 recorded competitive games in this spell, including previous seasons. Starts and minutes contribute 70%; performance contributes 30%. Absences reduce the score gradually, with less weight when a player is outside the matchday squad.Current role at Espanyol · independent of the season filter
Star
Involvement92%
Performance41%
Through the match on 30 Oct 2026. Refreshed daily.
Profile
Career & playing style
Omar El Hilali developed as a right-sided defender in Espanyol’s academy. His role asks for two kinds of judgment: when to hold the line against an opposing winger, and when there is room to move forward and supply a cross. Those decisions, rather than goals, give a clearer view of how he affects a match.
He joined Espanyol’s younger age groups for the 2016/17 season and moved from the under-17 side into the B team. On 4 April 2021, he made his first-team debut against Albacete in Spain’s second division, replacing Óscar Gil during a 4–0 win. That appearance followed time in first-team preseason training, but it did not by itself make him a regular.
The larger step came in 2023/24. Espanyol later recorded that he played 41 official matches that season and established himself in the starting side. He was in the lineup when Espanyol beat Real Oviedo 2–0 in the June 2024 promotion playoff final. That was a team promotion, with El Hilali part of the side that secured it.
His work on the right can change with the opponent. In a November 2023 game at Huesca, Espanyol’s report described his cross from that side reaching Martin Braithwaite and leading to a handball penalty. Against Real Betis in September 2024, the same flank had a different problem: Abde repeatedly attacked the space El Hilali was defending. These are match examples, not a claim that every outing follows one pattern.
His Morocco pathway also has distinct stages. CAF described him taking a shot against Congo during the country’s 2023 under-23 Africa Cup of Nations campaign, which Morocco went on to win. Espanyol reported his first senior Morocco squad call-up in March 2025 for World Cup qualifiers and another in August. A call-up is a selection decision; it does not show that he played in either set of matches. His debut came from the second of those call-ups, when he replaced Mohamed Chibi in stoppage time of a 2–0 World Cup qualifying win away to Zambia on 8 September 2025. He was not included in Morocco’s squads for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations or the 2026 World Cup.
By November 2025, Espanyol marked his 100th official first-team appearance, against Villarreal. The milestone reflects the distance from a substitute debut to a sustained senior role. Those separate match reports show the two demands of the position: defending an opponent’s advance down his flank and providing a cross when Espanyol find room to move forward.