Up-and-coming Richmond defender Ben Darrou, and his father Mustapha, invited Richmond great Matthew Richardson to experience some Moroccan culture this week.

Darrou, 19, lives in Brighton with his family – his Australian mother Jan, and Moroccan-born father, Mustapha, who have been running the Moroccan and Spanish-inspired tapas restaurant, ‘Safi’, for seven years.

Mustapha, originally from Casablanca in Morocco, also lived in Italy for 11 years, before arriving in Australia over 20 years ago.

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He is the chef at Safi and makes traditional Moroccan meals, as well as Spanish tapas, as the two cultures are closely linked in his homeland of Morocco.

Through his father’s influence, Ben played soccer growing up and didn’t begin playing Australian Rules football until his early teens, when his school mates encouraged him to play.

The strongly-built defender was recruited to Richmond in the 2012 Rookie Draft, and was making solid progress in Coburg’s defence until he was sidelined three weeks ago with a broken jaw.

This week marks Multicultural Round in the AFL, a time to celebrate cultural diversity within the community and learn more about players with multicultural backgrounds.

Richmond is proud that 30 per cent of its listed players are from multicultural backgrounds – the most of all AFL clubs.

Click on the player above to see ‘Richo’ chat to Ben Darrou and his father, Mustapha.

Safi Bar and Bistro is located in 146 Martin St, Brighton, Victoria. Click here to view the website.