DR ‹ › Former Everton and Major League Soccer (MLS) coach Adrian Heath has revealed a disturbing misadventure he says took place in Morocco in late 2024. The English football manager recounts that he was kidnapped and threatened during a trip to the Kingdom after being promised a job interview linked to a supposed Saudi club. Speaking to The Athletic on Wednesday, Heath said the offer turned out to be fake and led to what he described as a «surreal» and terrifying ordeal in northern Morocco. Heath said he was supposed to meet a club backer in Tangier, but was instead taken to an apartment in a harbour town he did not name. There, three men allegedly demanded a six-figure ransom. «You obviously realise that this isn't what you thought it was going to be», one of the men told him. «You're going to send us money. And if you don't, you won't see your wife again. You won't see your two kids and your grandkids». Heath said he was later threatened with a knife. Unable to pay immediately, Heath said he tried to buy time by citing banking constraints in the United States. Meanwhile, his family grew alarmed when his usual check-in calls stopped. His wife and children were eventually able to locate him using his phone's location services, which his alleged captors had failed to disable, and contacted authorities and intermediaries linked to the trip. Heath said that once his captors realised his family knew his location, the situation changed abruptly. «It was like a light switch was flicked», he recalled. He was then driven to the outskirts of the airport, pushed out of the car, and ran to Tangier airport, where he bought a last-minute ticket to Madrid before returning to the United States. When he arrived in the United States, Heath said he was met at the airport by his wife, while the FBI was already involved in the case. U.S. authorities reportedly provided security for his home for the following 28 days. Heath said he decided to speak publicly about the ordeal to prevent other managers from falling into the same trap, after learning that at least two others may have faced similar situations. Heath said the case is under investigation by U.S. and UK authorities, and that football bodies have since introduced stricter procedures to verify overseas job offers following the incident.
