The Morocco international spoke on how tough his early career was, but admitted that something clicked which led him to reach the top.
"When I became older and more mature, it was still, yeah, almost 50-50 (whether I would make it)," he said in October's issue. "I went and played professional football without a contract. And, what you said, it was do or die because, at that moment, you come to the point of no return.
"It’s either you go for it fully or that’s it. You will just make steps upwards or, from there on, it could be the end of your career, but you cannot even say your career as it was not even at the beginning.
"So that was a little bit the case when I became 18 or 19 years old and, from there on, something in my head just switched."
The fullback suddenly had a lot of confidence and optimism which sparked the start of his rise to the height of European football.
"It was just that I went fully for it," he recalled. "And, yeah, from that moment on, I didn’t look back anymore about how I went through the stages and through the Academy, or even this moment.
"I didn’t look back anymore. I just looked forward. I had a goal and that was to fight for a contract and to be a professional footballer because I was just so close, I could smell it. And, yeah, if you don’t make it, it would be that you will regret that for the rest of your life. And I wouldn’t want to live with that.”