Best friends Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi on opposite sides as Morocco take on France in World Cup semifinal

The two were born only a month and a half apart, play video games together, sit next to each other on flights, go on holidays together and even share goal celebrations.
Achraf Hakimi, the brilliant Morocco right back, is Kylian Mbappe’s closest friend at Paris Saint-Germain. Now it’s time to put that friendship aside, though. The duo will be on opposite sides as Morocco take on France in the second semifinal of the FIFA World Cup.

Morocco coach Walid Regragui has no doubts Hakimi will be at his best.
“He (Hakimi) knows Mbappé better than me, he trains with him every day,” Regragui said. “He’s better placed than me to know Kylian. They are two champions who won’t be giving away any gifts. I have no doubt that Hakimi will be on top form to get the better of his friend.”
The “waddle” with which Hakimi marked his clinching penalty in the shoot-out against Spain in the round of 16, although initially seen in the NFL, is partly a reference to Mbappé’s nickname at PSG, “The Penguin”. Mbappe saw it and tweeted Hakimi’s name, with a crown, a heart and a penguin emoji.
When Kylian Mbappe had a day off at the World Cup last week, there was one obvious place to go. A 20-minute drive to the hotel the Morocco team are staying to visit his friend Hakimi.
Mbappe’s social media feeds are full with pictures of him with the good and great – from Paris Saint-Germain colleagues Neymar and Lionel Messi, to former France international Thierry Henry to Spider-Man actor Tom Holland – but nobody features as much as Hakimi in his feeds.
There is no shortage of common ground for the duo. Both share parental links to Africa, with Hakimi’s parents Hassan and Saida moving from Morocco before he was born, while Mbappe’s father Wilfried is from Cameroon and his mother Fayza Lamari has an Algerian background.
Each had also enjoyed startling success their late teens. In 2018, Mbappe – who had already moved from Monaco to PSG, initially on loan – won a World Cup with France; Hakimi, meanwhile, picked up Champions League and Club World Cup winner’s medals with Madrid.
So when Hakimi joined Mbappe at PSG in July last year, moving from Inter, the Parisian quickly recognised a kindred spirit. He made an immediate effort to help Hakimi settle in, enjoying practicing the excellent Spanish he had learned as a teenager, and they were soon seen as inseparable their team-mates. The club even gave the new arrival the locker bedside that of his new friend.

While there’s no doubt that there will be more attention on Mbappe than Hakimi when they meet as rivals, the latter has had an outstanding tournament. Morocco have conceded only once, an own goal, in their five games, and the right-back has already shut down Thorgan Hazard, Dani Olmo and Joao Félix.
No player has made more than his 19 tackles, and only two defenders (Australia’s Aziz Behich and Sergiño Dest of the United States) have attempted more than his 11 dribbles. With the centre-backs Romain Saïss and Nayef Aguerd both struggling with injury, and the left-back Noussair Mazraoui trying to shake off an illness, he is the only member of Morocco’s first-choice back four who is sure to play against France.

None of Hakimi’s contributions on the pitch has quite had the same viral appeal or emotional punch as the images of him kissing his mother, Saida Mouh, after Morocco’s victories. She used to clean houses in Madrid, where Achraf was born, and his father was a street vendor.
“We come from a modest family that struggled to earn a living,” Hakimi said in an interview in 2018. “They made sacrifices for me. They deprived my brothers of many things for me to succeed. Today I fight every day for them.”
Morocco will be clear underdogs against France, but Regragui has said that they are not ready to give up their “crazy” dream yet. “We’ve come to this competition to change mindsets within our continent,” he said. “If we say the semi-final is enough, I don’t agree.
“We aren’t satisfied with the semi- final and being the first African team to do that. We want to go further.

“Before every match people thought we would get knocked out but we are still here. We are getting closer to our dreams and we will fight to get there. I don’t know if it will be enough but we want Africa to be on top of the world. You might think that’s crazy, but a bit of craziness is good.”Subscriber Only StoriesPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
Didier Deschamps described Morocco’s as “the best defence at the World Cup”, but said France “had tried to take note of some key things we have seen” that could help them to unlock Regragui’s watertight 4-3-3 system.