Yassir Zabiri: Racing Santander's Goals and the FC 27 Card That Missed Them

On 19 October 2025, in Santiago, Yassir Zabiri scored both goals as Morocco beat Argentina 2-0 in the Under-20 World Cup final, and FIFA gave him the Silver Ball. In February 2026 Rennes signed him from Famalicão, then gave him six substitute appearances and 42 minutes of Ligue 1 football. In July they loaned him to Racing Santander, just promoted back to LaLiga after 14 years away. On 24 October his 84th-minute winner against Espanyol made it eight league goals in ten games: level with Lamine Yamal as LaLiga's top-scoring under-23s, and joint third on the whole chart. EA FC 27 rates him 66. Of the players on seven goals or more, nobody else is rated below 74. (Figures as of 29 October 2026.)

Read the right-hand columns as a card collector would. Every other name on seven goals or more carries a card of 74 or better, and three of them are in the 88 to 91 bracket that the game keeps for world-class forwards. Zabiri sits among them on 66, eight points below Sergio Camello. Widen the cut to six goals and the gap narrows to six: Elche's Fer Niño, who reached six with a penalty at Rayo on 24 October, carries a 72.

The first three came in one burst: a hat-trick against Elche on 28 August, scored in the 15th, 21st and 36th minutes. It gave Racing their first win of the season, and they needed all three, because Elche scored twice late and the game finished 3-2. Against Alavés on 12 September Racing fell behind, and Zabiri scored twice to turn it into a 2-1 win. He came off the bench at Camp Nou four days later and scored in a 7-2 defeat. Against Valencia on 11 October he ran onto Íñigo Vicente's through-ball to equalise in a 2-2 draw. Then came Espanyol on 24 October: Racing were losing at El Sardinero, Jeanuël Belocian levelled, and Zabiri finished in the scramble after a corner with six minutes left.

Racing have won three league games this season. Zabiri scored the winning goal in all three, and none of his eight has been a penalty. The three September goals, two against Alavés and one at Camp Nou, made him LaLiga's Under-23 Player of the Month for September, ahead of a final vote that included Pau Cubarsí, Alberto Moleiro, Miguel Sierra and Yoel Lago.

Look at what a ratings team had on file for him before this season. At Famalicão he had scored seven goals in 20 first-team games, a promising start in Portuguese football. At Rennes, after his move in February 2026, the record was six Ligue 1 appearances, all from the bench, 42 minutes in total and no goals. On that evidence a 66 is a defensible number for a young striker who had stalled in his first months in France. The two goals in Santiago came at a youth tournament, and a rating built on senior football does not price them in.

What is harder to defend is that the number has not moved. When we pulled FC 27's ratings on 30 September, the card already had him at Racing and he already had six LaLiga goals. The overall read 66, and EA's own ratings page still showed 66 when we checked it again on 29 October. Our list of FC 27's biggest rating jumps is full of young players the game chose to upgrade; Zabiri was not one of them.

Scout Gamer Read — EA FC 27: 66 (SHO 66, PAC 72). Real-level: a runner in behind scoring at the rate of LaLiga's front line, on ten games of evidence. Tier: Ready Now.

The running game explains a lot of it. José Alberto, Racing's coach, said after the Espanyol win that he had thought about taking Zabiri off because he was not at his sharpest, but that the striker is always a threat and, in any situation, threatens the space behind a defence. The Valencia goal was exactly that, a run onto a pass played through the line. The card's 72 for pace is respectable, but what his coach described is the threat of the run itself, and no single attribute on a card captures that.

Not every rating is wrong. The card gives him 53 for passing, and LaLiga's official match data credits him with no assists from his ten games so far. He is scoring, not creating, and the game reads that correctly. José Alberto himself asked for calm afterwards, saying the striker is doing very well but still has a great deal to improve.

Zabiri in Numbers

Senior international football has not opened up for him the way LaLiga has. Mohamed Ouahbi, who coached him to the Under-20 title and has been Morocco's head coach since March 2026, first called him into the senior squad that month. He started against Gabon on 25 September, a 2-0 win in AFCON qualifying, and was replaced in the second half without scoring. Morocco's goals in the window's other two games, against Lesotho and Mali, all came from other players.

Then there is the loan itself. It runs for one season, to 30 June 2027, and Rennes still hold his contract to 2029. Whatever the card says, his club future is still in Rennes' hands. He was not on our list of the best young strikers in world football, and on this evidence the next edition has to look at him.