Fifa, Ilias

As a child, he lived in an ordinary Moroccan family, since the age of 13 he spent all day in the market, where he worked as a loader. At this time, he began to dream of Spain, where, according to Elias, he would have more opportunities to arrange a life. At the age of 17, along with several other teenagers, he managed to illegally cross the Spanish border. He had to hide under a truck to get on a ferry to Algeciras , and then to get out of it into the country. For three days he wandered around the port city, not knowing the language and not having money. Finally, he managed to meet a Moroccan young man who agreed to buy a ticket to Ilias for Barcelona (on which Fifa had his main hopes). In the capital of Catalonia, he again spent three days aimlessly spending the night in the park when the police turned his attention to him. After the survey in the precinct, he was placed in the hostel of the Red Cross , and three months later - in the juvenile shelter of Santa Perpetua de Mogoda ^[1] .

Up to this point, the life of Elias was in no way connected with sports. He began to run in the shelter, with the goal of starting a right life: before his eyes was a negative example of peers, other pupils of the center who used smoking mixes . After some time, his desire to play sports was noticed and allowed to go to training daily to Esther Rodriguez from the Athletics Association of Catalonia. At first it was just an excuse to legally leave the shelter, but gradually Ilias began to like the running process itself ^[2] .

His results were growing, and at 22, after setting a personal record at a distance of 5000 meters (13.39.70), he was invited by his coach Rafael Caro. Ilias became a member of the Barcelona club, received a scholarship, but could not speak at international competitions, as he was still a citizen of Morocco. He rejected the offer to speak for his historical homeland, since he connected the future only with Spain. As a result, in order to have a livelihood, he had to work as a storekeeper full time, then as a cleaner in a cleaning company. Ilias received a Spanish passport in July 2015, and a month later he made his debut for the national team at the World Championships , where he could not make it to the finals of 5000 meters ^[3] .

At the European Championships 2016, he acted as the leader of the European season. In a dramatic struggle, he managed to snatch a gold medal in the 5000 meters race, only ahead of three rivals at the photo finish (all winners had exactly the same result accurate to hundredths).

He participated in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , where he finished the fight at the stage of preliminary races.

• Ilias Fifa's profile on the Spanish Athletics Federation website
• Ilias Fifa - profile on the IAAF website
• Elias Fifa's profile on all-athletics.com
• Profile of Elias Fifa on the European Athletics Association website