Before its beginning, the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar had made the headlines for many reasons. Now that the tournament is done and dusted, one country that has risen from the ashes is Morocco.
Atlas Lions became the first African country to qualify for the semifinals and, on its way, beat Spain (2010 World champion) and Portugal (2016 Euro champion).
Cristiano Ronaldo – perhaps one of the best to ever play the sport and someone who has 819 career goals to his name – left the pitch in tears as millions roared from the streets of Marrakesh to Souq Waqif in Doha.
Morocco had come into the World Cup, drawn in a group with the runner-up and third-placed team from the 2018 World Cup – Croatia and Belgium respectively.
It began its campaign with a goalless draw against the Croats before shocking Belgium. Captain Romain Saiss opened the scoring in the 73rd minute before Zakaria Aboukhlal sealed the contest in the second half of injury time.
After that, it went on to win every match until the semifinal, starting with a victory over Canada, and a penalty-shootout win over Spain in the round of 16, thanks to two heroic saves by Yassine Bounou and an apropos panenka by Achraf Hakimi.
Against Portugal, Youssef En-Nesyri, the Sevilla forward who had no LaLiga goals this season, scored his second goal of the tournament, almost emulating Ronaldo’s famous header against Sampdoria as the former watched from the bench.
However, France stopped its dream run when an injury-hit Morocco – without Saiss and Noussair Mazraoui – finished second best in the battle for a spot in the final. Nevertheless, Morocco’s journey came as a breath of fresh air.
Redemption for Regragui, Ziyech
Morocco’s head coach Vahid Halilhodzic, who had guided the team to Qatar 2022, was fired in August due to a disagreement with the country’s football federation, especially about the return of winger Hakim Ziyech, who was dropped after he was ‘unwilling’ to play in a friendly game.
Walid Regragui replaced Halilhodzic in September but the coach – who had guided Wydad Casablanca to the league and CAF Champions League titles – was labelled the ‘avocado head’ because of the boots he was about to fill and the reputation Halilhodzic had in Moroccan football.
The world at his feet: There was a buzz whenever Ziyech had the ball.
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AFP
Born in France, Regragui had decided to play for Atlas Lions all his life. He promptly brought back Ziyech – a player who was later proved instrumental in the team’s success in Qatar – into the side.
Ziyech, who had announced his retirement following a rift with the former head coach, led the counter-attacks on the right flank, scored a goal and was involved in an assist.
Regragui and Ziyech are now icons in Morocco, members of the army that bore the torch of African football and kept the flame burning until the semifinals – a first for the continent. There’s no doubt that redemption was complete, for both.
Mother’s Love: The magic potion
The Wyndham Doha West Bay hotel, the base for the Morocco team, looked atypical of what a hotel would look like when players stay.
Regragui, along with the Royal Moroccan Football Federation president Fouzi Lekjaa, ensured that the family members chosen by all the squad members – including the support staff – were entitled to an all-inclusive trip to Qatar.
The coach, himself, took his mother to Qatar and she watched her son make history.
“I lived my life in Paris, but it was the first time that I attended a tournament with Walid participating, as a player or a coach,” Regragui’s mother told the Moroccan TV station Arryadia.
One for posterity: Hakimi received a special gift from his mother after Morocco’s game against Belgium.
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Getty Images
Another doting mother was pleased in the stands as Achraf Hakimi – the Spain-born full-back – plied his trade, sealing a victory for his team with a decisive penalty, ironically against the country of his birth.
“My mother cleaned houses, and my father was a street vendor. We come from a modest family that struggled to earn a living. Today I fight every day for them. They sacrificed themselves for me,” he had once told Bundesliga.com.
Hakimi, being hugged and kissed by his mother, became one of the most endearing moments and images of Qatar 2022.
The Arab Spring and African convergence
Africa did not have a dedicated qualifying slot in the FIFA World Cup until 1970. That, too, came after the rebellion led by Ohene Djan – Ghana’s FA president, under whom the Black Stars boycotted the 1966 edition.
Over half a century later, Morocco did the unthinkable: defeating European powerhouses and its former colonisers – Spain and Portugal.
“You have the small team and the big team, but when you are the small team, you have to believe,” Regragui said after beating Portugal.
The Atlas Lions have reignited the belief of national pride in Africans and players (with African roots) are choosing to play for countries from the continent, knowing that there is a chance to succeed on the global stage.
Hakimi – one of the most prolific full-backs in the world at the moment – chose to represent Morocco and not Spain, where he was born and raised. And he led his country all the way to the last four.
At the 2022 World Cup, 137 players of the 831 played for a country where they were not born. In the Moroccan squad, 14 of the 26 players were born outside the country – from Hakimi and the France-born Saiss to the Netherlands-born Ziyech – but still chose to play for the African side.
The latest edition of the global football gala was the most successful for African outfits. Morocco became the first African nation this century to win its group, Cameroon earned the distinction of being the first African side to beat Brazil at the World Cup and Tunisia shocked France, the eventual finalist.
This year was also the first World Cup when all five African nations had coaches from their own countries.
Morocco, beyond winning hearts in every nook and corner of the world, also made ripples in the geopolitical department, waving the Palestinian flag after victories.
Africa and the Arab World have found a uniting force, football, embodied in a red flag with a green star and cheers of Dima Maghreb (Morocco forever) among millions.
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