European figures in Morocco’s World Cup squad, La Roja’s stumbling block in Barcelona

Morocco one of the five African representatives at the Qatar World Cup, will be the first opponent of the Chilean team of Eduardo Berizzo on this FIFA date. The Atlas Lions This year will be their sixth appearance at a World Cup and they aspire to repeat what they did in Mexico in 1986, the only time they reached the round of 16.

Against La Roja, the Moroccan team will not only have majority support in Barcelona (due to geographical proximity), but will also have the debut of their new coach. Walid Regragui has been chosen to replace Bosnian Vahid Halilhodzic, which paved the way for qualifying for the World Cup. The brand new strategist has to his credit a panoply of footballers scattered throughout Europe, who have given new impetus to football in the country and thus, for example, access to the World Cup in Russia after a long absence (since France 98). Morocco has many of its figures in the major leagues in Europe.

The star of the Maghreb team is Ashraf Hakimi (23) , born in Madrid but of Moroccan parents. A product of the Real Madrid youth academy, he was never able to establish himself in the merengue store. He had to leave the White House to devote himself. He did it first at Borussia Dortmund and then at Inter Milan, where he was a teammate of Alexis Sánchez and Arturo Vidal. In 2021, he was acquired by PSG, in exchange for 66.5 million euros, establishing himself as one of the most sought-after full-backs internationally. He is the player with the highest value of the Moroccan team: 65 million euros (based on data from transfer market ).

Two other selected players who stand out are teammates at Sevilla in Spain. It’s the goalkeeper Yassine Bounou (31) and from the front Youssef En-Nesyri (25) . The goalkeeper, better known in La Liga simply as Bono, was born in Canada and has spent most of his career in Hispanic football. He won the Zamora Trophy for the 2021-22 season, as the least beaten goalkeeper in the Spanish First Division. For his part, En-Nesyri has also focused his sporting career on Iberian territory. His best La Liga campaign was 20-21, when he scored 18 goals in 38 games for the Andalusians.

In addition to En-Nesyri, other offensive variants available to Morocco are Mounir El Haddadi (27 years old), the same one who came out of the Barcelona youth academy and who today is in Getafe, and Amine Harit (25 years old), of Olympique de Marseille, teammate of Alexis Sánchez.

In midfield, the name of Sofiane Amrabat (26) , from Florence. He was born in the Netherlands, where he took his first steps as a footballer, both in Utrecht and Feyenoord. He then signed for Belgian Bruges and arrived in Italy for the 19-20 campaign, at Hellas Verona. He is currently in his third year with the viola team. Back up the yard, he finds Roman Saiss (32) , the Moroccan captain. The defender ended up in the Turkish Besiktas, after a long stay in the English Wolverhampton.

After 15 months of exile, the talented Hakim Ziyesh (29) returns to the North Africa team. This coincides directly with the departure of Vahid Halilhodzic from the technical direction. The two fell out and the current Chelsea player (former Ajax, where he shone) announced his retirement from the team last February, after being left out of the call-ups for the Qualifiers and the European Cup. Africa of Nations. The ex-DT claimed the reason Ziyech was out was because he faked an injury and showed ‘unacceptable behaviour’.

Another comeback is that of the defender Noussair Mazraoui (24 years old), who had also fallen out with the previous coach. This player, who can play both as a winger and as a central midfielder, moved from Ajax to Bayern Munich, a club with which he signed until 2026.