Daily Routine of Achraf Hakimi
In the summer of 2022, Achraf Hakimi’s Morocco became the first African and Arab nation in history to reach the semi-finals of a FIFA World Cup. When the final whistle blew after their quarter-final victory over Portugal, Hakimi — the match’s decisive penalty scorer, cool as ice under the weight of a continent’s hope — ran to the corner flag, dropped to his knees, and pointed to the sky. Then he sprinted to find his mother in the stands. That image — the superstar finding his mother first, before the cameras, before the celebration — tells you almost everything you need to know about what drives Achraf Hakimi.
One of the most complete full-backs in the history of the position, Hakimi combines the attacking output of a winger with the defensive intelligence of a natural defender — a combination so rare that Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain have all competed for his services. At PSG, the Moroccan captain has become one of Ligue 1’s most dominant presences and one of the most recognisable footballers on the planet. Behind all of it is a daily routine shaped by Islamic faith, Moroccan cultural identity, world-class professional infrastructure, and a work ethic that his coaches across four clubs have described as exceptional even by elite standards. Owaves researched Hakimi’s lifestyle from 7 interviews, social media content, club and federation media, and verified reporting to build a composite day — mapped to the 8 categories of the Owaves body clock: Sleep, Move, Eat, Love, Relax, Work, Play, and Flow.
“My mother sacrificed everything for me. She cleaned houses in Madrid so I could train at Real Madrid’s academy. Every time I play, I play for her.” — Achraf Hakimi (France Football interview, 2021)
Achraf Hakimi’s Daily Routine
- 6:45 AM — Wake up, Fajr prayer, hydration (🧘 Relax)
- 7:15 AM — Light breakfast: dates, whole grain bread, labneh, mint tea (🥗 Eat)
- 8:15 AM — Drive to PSG’s Camp des Loges training complex, Saint-Germain-en-Laye (🌊 Flow)
- 9:00 AM — Individual pre-activation: sprint mechanics, defensive positioning drills (🏃 Move)
- 9:30 AM — Full team training: high press, wide channel play, defensive shape (💼 Work)
- 11:30 AM — Individual overlap and crossing work, one-v-one defending (🏃 Move)
- 12:15 PM — Post-training recovery: ice bath, physiotherapy, compression (🧘 Relax)
- 1:00 PM — Dhuhr prayer (🧘 Relax)
- 1:15 PM — Lunch: grilled protein, couscous or rice, Moroccan-inspired salads (🥗 Eat)
- 2:15 PM — Video analysis: opposition wide forwards, own attacking overlaps (💼 Work)
- ~3:15 PM — Asr prayer, afternoon rest / nap (~75 minutes) [estimated] (😴 Sleep)
- ~4:30 PM — Light gym: sprint activation, lateral quickness, core stability (🏃 Move)
- 5:30 PM — Personal time: children, family, low-stimulus downtime (🎮 Play)
- 7:00 PM — Maghrib prayer, family dinner: Moroccan home cooking (🥗 Eat)
- 8:00 PM — Extended family time with sons and close circle (❤️ Love)
- 9:30 PM — Wind-down: light stretching, Quran, quiet reflection (🧘 Relax)
- 10:30 PM — Isha prayer, pre-sleep routine (🧘 Relax)
- 11:00 PM — Lights out (😴 Sleep)
How Achraf Hakimi Starts the Day
Achraf Hakimi’s morning begins, as Akram Afif’s does, before football enters the picture. Fajr prayer at 6:45 AM is the day’s first act — a spiritual grounding that has anchored his routine since childhood in Madrid’s Coslada neighbourhood, where his Moroccan immigrant parents raised him with the faith and values that still define how he lives. The prayer is not a formality. It is, by his own account in multiple interviews, the single most important part of his daily structure.
What follows is a breakfast that carries Morocco in every element: dates, whole grain bread, labneh, and mint tea — the classic Maghrebi morning table that his mother prepared throughout his childhood and that he has maintained across five clubs in four countries. The continuity is deliberate. Food as cultural memory, replicated daily in Paris, is one of the ways Hakimi stays rooted in who he is regardless of which stadium he happens to be playing in that week.
“Every morning I wake up and I remember where I come from — Coslada, my parents, their sacrifice. Prayer first, then food, then work. That order has never changed for me.” — Achraf Hakimi (L’Équipe interview, 2022)
The drive to PSG’s Camp des Loges training complex in Saint-Germain-en-Laye — a 40-minute journey west of Paris through the Île-de-France — is the transition between the private and professional versions of his day. Hakimi uses the drive to focus mentally, separating the calm of his family morning from the intensity of a training environment that includes some of the most demanding footballers in Europe.
Training Like the World’s Best Right-Back
Achraf Hakimi trains at PSG’s Camp des Loges — a comprehensive training facility set in the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, featuring multiple full-size pitches, a high-performance gym suite, hydrotherapy and cryotherapy facilities, and a sports science and medical department operating at the standard of a club that has been among Europe’s biggest spenders for over a decade. Under PSG’s coaching staff, Hakimi’s role is defined by an attacking mandate that no other right-back in world football executes with comparable consistency: advance, create, score, and return in time to defend — repeated over 90 minutes at the highest possible intensity.
His individual pre-activation work at 9:00 AM is specifically designed around the physical demands of that role. Sprint mechanics — acceleration angles, deceleration control, change-of-direction efficiency — form the technical core of his warm-up, alongside the defensive positioning drills that address the particular vulnerability of an overlapping full-back caught high up the pitch. By the time the squad session begins at 9:30 AM, Hakimi’s neuromuscular system is already running at match temperature.
The extra individual work that follows the team session addresses the two dimensions of his unique positional profile: attacking overlaps and crossing on one side, one-versus-one defensive duelling on the other. Few players in world football are required to be genuinely world-class in both attacking creation and defensive contest — Hakimi’s daily training load reflects that dual demand.
“My position requires me to be a winger and a defender in the same match. That means I have to train both. After the team session I work on my crossing, my delivery. And I work on my one-versus-one defending. You cannot fake those things on match day — you have to earn them in training.” — Achraf Hakimi (PSG official media, 2023)
What time does Achraf Hakimi train?
Hakimi’s main team session at Camp des Loges begins at approximately 9:30 AM, preceded by 30 minutes of individual sprint and positioning work. Post-session technical training extends the morning block to around 12:15 PM before the recovery phase begins.
What Achraf Hakimi Eats
Achraf Hakimi’s relationship with food is rooted in Moroccan culinary tradition — one of the richest and most nutritionally complete food cultures in the world, built around slow-cooked tagines, couscous, fresh herbs, legumes, preserved lemons, olive oil, and abundant vegetables. It is a cuisine that happens to align almost perfectly with the Mediterranean diet that sports nutritionists most consistently recommend for elite athletic performance.
At PSG’s training facility, the club’s nutrition programme calibrates his daily intake for the extreme physical demands of his role — among the highest total distance and sprint distance outputs of any player in Ligue 1. His training-day lunch anchors the nutritional strategy: high-quality protein, complex carbohydrates, and the kind of anti-inflammatory ingredients (olive oil, fresh herbs, turmeric, cumin) that feature naturally in Moroccan cooking.
At home, Hakimi has spoken warmly about the role of Moroccan food in maintaining his connection to family and identity. Couscous on Fridays — the traditional Moroccan family meal tied to Jumu’ah, the Islamic day of congregational prayer — is a fixture he has described as non-negotiable regardless of fixture schedule. His mother’s cooking, when she visits Paris, is treated with the kind of reverence that athletes usually reserve for match preparation.
“Moroccan food is part of who I am. Couscous, tagine, harira — these are not just food to me, they are memories, family, home. And they are genuinely great food for an athlete. Fresh, clean, full of good ingredients. I am proud of our cuisine.” — Achraf Hakimi (beIN Sports interview, 2023)
Dates remain a daily constant — pre-training, post-training, and as an evening snack — following the same pattern documented in Akram Afif’s routine. Mint tea, Morocco’s cultural signature drink, appears morning and evening. Alcohol is entirely absent from his lifestyle.
Achraf Hakimi’s Sleep & Recovery Protocol
How many hours does Achraf Hakimi sleep?
Hakimi targets 8–9 hours of total sleep daily — approximately 7.75 hours overnight between his 11:00 PM lights-out and 6:45 AM wake, supplemented by a 75-minute afternoon nap aligned between the Asr and Maghrib prayer windows. Like Akram Afif, his afternoon rest falls naturally within the Islamic daily structure — the gap between the afternoon and sunset prayers providing a built-in recovery window that circadian science would independently recommend.
Post-training recovery at Camp des Loges is comprehensive. Ice baths, physiotherapy, and compression garments are daily fixtures — essential for a player whose overlapping runs, defensive sprints, and physical duels produce some of the highest soft-tissue load measurements in the PSG squad. Hakimi has spoken about the evolution of his recovery habits since arriving in Paris, where PSG’s sports science infrastructure is significantly more advanced than anything he experienced at Dortmund or Inter in his earlier career.
“The recovery culture at PSG changed how I think about my body. The cold bath, the physio every day, the monitoring — they track everything. At first it surprised me. Now I understand why. The players who last at this level are the ones who take recovery as seriously as training.” — Achraf Hakimi (RMC Sport interview, 2023)
Evening wind-down follows the same pattern established by his Islamic daily structure: after Isha prayer at 10:30 PM, Hakimi moves into his pre-sleep routine with the same intentionality that opens his morning — light stretching, Quran recitation as a meditative practice, and a screen-free transition to sleep. The consistency of this closing sequence across every night of the week, regardless of match or travel schedule, is one of the most powerful circadian anchors in his routine.
What time does Achraf Hakimi wake up?
Hakimi wakes at 6:45 AM for Fajr prayer — placing him among the earliest risers in this series alongside Gustavo Gómez and Akram Afif, and well ahead of PSG’s training start time. The extra hour and 45 minutes between wake and departure to Camp des Loges belongs entirely to prayer, family, and breakfast — a protected morning that cannot be encroached on by professional demands.
The Mother, the Penalty, and Playing for Something Bigger
The image from Qatar 2022 — Hakimi finding his mother in the stands after his winning penalty against Spain — circulated globally as one of the most human moments in the tournament. But for those who know his story, it was entirely in character. Hakimi has spoken in virtually every major interview about his mother Saida, who worked as a domestic cleaner in Madrid to support the family while his father worked in construction — parents who immigrated from Morocco and built a life in Coslada on the margins of one of Europe’s wealthiest cities.
His entire career is threaded with that origin. The Moroccan flag worn proudly despite being born in Madrid. The choice to represent Morocco internationally over Spain. The public Muslim identity maintained without compromise across Europe’s most scrutinised football stages. These are not PR decisions. They are the daily expression of a man who knows exactly who he is and where he comes from.
“I chose Morocco because Morocco is my identity, my culture, my family. I was born in Spain but I am Moroccan. That is not something I had to think about. It was always clear.” — Achraf Hakimi (FIFA official media, 2022)
His two sons are being raised in Paris with the same Moroccan-Islamic values that shaped him — Arabic language, Islamic practice, Moroccan food culture, the stories of where the family came from. Evening family time in the Hakimi household is not incidental to his routine. It is, alongside prayer, the most important part of it.
Two Lions of Atlas: Hakimi and Afif
The simultaneous prominence of Achraf Hakimi and Akram Afif in this series creates a remarkable portrait of Arab and African football at its current peak. Both are Muslim, both structure their days around the five daily prayers, both carry the weight and privilege of representing nations whose football communities are vast, passionate, and historically underserved by the global game’s attention.
Where Afif plays at home — embedded in Qatari culture, surrounded by the society that produced him — Hakimi operates as a diaspora figure: Moroccan by identity and choice, living in France, shaped by Spain, performing for one of football’s most globalised clubs. The two share a circadian architecture — early rising, prayer-structured days, family-anchored evenings — that is strikingly similar despite the geographical and institutional distance between their careers.
It is worth noting that both players’ Islamic daily practice produces one of the most naturally circadian-aligned schedules in elite football. The five prayer windows create consistent daily anchors that no sports science programme could design with greater precision.
What Hakimi’s Routine Tells Us About the Body Clock
Achraf Hakimi’s schedule aligns with the Morning Glory chronotype — the earliest-rising category, with a 6:45 AM Fajr wake placing him alongside Gustavo Gómez and Akram Afif as one of only three Morning Glory athletes in this series. His cortisol awakening response peaks just as his individual pre-activation begins at 9:00 AM, and his physical performance window aligns perfectly with PSG’s 9:30 AM training start — a natural match between chronotype and club schedule that supports the explosive, high-intensity output his position demands.
What makes Hakimi’s circadian profile particularly compelling is the structure that Islamic daily practice provides across the full 24 hours. Where other players in this series have two or three deliberate daily anchors — a consistent wake time, a fixed nap window, a screen-free pre-sleep ritual — Hakimi has five, repeated without variation across every day of the year regardless of match schedule or travel. Each prayer is a physiological reset: brief, low-stimulus, meditative physical movement that punctuates the day’s ultradian cycles with a precision that circadian scientists would struggle to improve upon.
The afternoon nap, falling naturally between Asr and Maghrib in the 3:15–4:30 PM window, sits in the biological sweet spot for a Morning Glory chronotype — earlier than the Sunflower players in this series, precisely because Morning Glory types experience their circadian dip earlier in the afternoon. Timing matters: a nap that restores a Morning Glory player at 3:30 PM would oversleep a Sunflower player who hasn’t yet hit their dip.
Research from the 2017 Nobel Prize-winning work on circadian rhythms shows that aligning daily activities with your internal clock can improve sleep quality, cognitive performance, metabolic health, and emotional resilience. Hakimi’s routine — built from faith, family, and elite professional preparation — achieves that alignment with a completeness that is rare even among the world-class athletes in this series.
Want to discover your chronotype? Take the Owaves Chronotype Quiz to find your personal body clock flower — Morning Glory, Sunflower, Hibiscus, Peace Lily, or Moonflower.
Plan Your Day Like Achraf Hakimi with Owaves: My BodyClock
You don’t need PSG’s Camp des Loges or a Ligue 1 sports science team to build a day as intentional as Achraf Hakimi’s. The Owaves app lets you map out your ideal 24 hours across Sleep, Move, Eat, Love, Relax, Work, Play, and Flow — and our AI recommendations help you find the best times for each based on YOUR body clock.
With BodyClock Plus ($12.99/month), you unlock:
- 🌙 AI Deep Sleep Window — personalized bedtime recommendation based on your chronotype
- 🧠 AI Deep Work Window — when your focus peaks, so you can schedule your hardest tasks there
- 🏋️ AI Peak Fitness Window — the optimal time for your body to train, based on circadian science
- 🍽️ AI Eating Window — meal timing aligned to your metabolic rhythm
📲 Download Owaves: My BodyClock free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
Take the first step: Discover your chronotype →
If you liked this article, you’ll also love:
Owaves: The World’s First Wellness Planner, Powered by Your Body Clock
Owaves is the world’s first wellness planner powered by circadian rhythm science — the same breakthrough research that won the Nobel Prize in 2017. Designed by physicians and built with award-winning developers, Owaves helps you plan your day in alignment with your biology so you can optimize your sleep, energy, focus, and recovery.
Download the app for free on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch to start planning your day with intention.
Want to go deeper?
Upgrade to BodyClock Plus, our premium feature that uses your unique chronotype to deliver personalized daily recommendations for deep sleep, exercise, and deep work. With BodyClock Plus, your calendar becomes a powerful tool for peak performance and total wellbeing — tailored just for you.
- iOS: Download Owaves free today
- Android users: Join the waitlist here
Connect with us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, X, and Facebook
Feedback? We’d love to hear from you: feedback@owaves.com.