Torino forward Zakaria Aboukhlal enters the summer transfer window with his club's managerial situation unresolved, after Alberto Aquilani — previously linked with the Granata job — appears set to take charge at Sassuolo instead, with Torino now turning their attention to Ignazio Abate as a replacement target.
The coaching uncertainty matters directly to Aboukhlal. At 26, the Moroccan attacker is at the age where a season of 15 appearances, no goals, and no assists demands a clear answer from a new manager: rebuild the relationship or move on. His average rating of 6.60 across those outings, and an AI overall score of 56 out of 100, suggests a player whose ceiling has not yet been reached — but also one who has not come close to it in 2025-26.
Torino's season as a whole provides the backdrop. Leonardo Colucci's side finished 12th with 44 points from 37 matches, a record of twelve wins, eight draws, and seventeen defeats, conceding 61 goals against 42 scored. That goal differential tells its own story: this was a squad that struggled to create and failed to hold. Aboukhlal's blank return sits within that broader dysfunction, though it does not excuse it.
The Abate candidacy introduces a new variable. A different coach brings different tactical priorities, different trust hierarchies, and — crucially for Aboukhlal — a different read on which forwards deserve a genuine run. One reported priority for the incoming manager will be convincing Giovanni Simeone to remain at the club, which signals that attacking reinforcement, not reduction, is the direction of travel. Whether Aboukhlal fits that picture depends entirely on who sits in the dugout when pre-season begins.
His next contract year, if he has one, will be defined in the first weeks of July.