Creative playmaker, goofy goalkeeper, canny coach, and more: The Moroccans who have taken the world storm

One in every five girls born in Morocco in 1984 goes the name Nawal; one in every boy born in the same year was named Saïd. It was the royal decree that all children born in 1984 be named after Morocco’s first two gold medal-winning athletes at the 1984 Olympics, Nawal El Moutawakel clinching in 400m hurdles and Saïd Aouita bagging the 5000m honours.
The incumbent king has issued no such orders, but new parents might have already begun naming their children after the Moroccan footballers who have made hory, and are still making hory, at this World Cup.
The favourite name would be Achraf, after Achraf Hakimi, Morocco’s posterboy of the tournament, on and off the pitch. On the field, he has been their most creative player, play-making from the wings, launching pacy counterattacks, rattling defences, threading needle-eye passes to the forwards, and making Panenka kicks in shootouts.
But what has endeared Hakimi the most is what he does after the final whle: running to his mother in the stands, climbing atop the barricades and kissing her. After the Portugal game, he dragged her to the ground and made her dance with him. “He is our role model,” manager Walid Regragui would say.

صور الفوز التاريخي لمنتخبنا الوطني أمام منتخب البرتغال 🤩
📸 Highlights of this amazing qualification#DimaMaghrib 🇲🇦 #TeamMorocco #FIFAWorldCup @pumafootball pic.twitter.com/xdXZiqNFP8
— Équipe du Maroc (@EnMaroc) December 10, 2022
His heart-wrenching backstory adds further lustre to his achievement. His father, Hasan, was a street vendor; his mother cleaned houses in Madrid’s suburb of Getafe. A conventional football growth-chart was beyond him. Hakimi mostly played on the streets with friends, but a scout of local club Colonia Ofigevi stumbled onto him, recognised his potential and whisked him to the club, where he began his footballing education.
His talents were so obvious in local tournaments that in less than a year, Hakimi reached the gates of Real Madrid’s famous academy. Two years later, he made his full debut, only that stiff competition relegated him to bit-part shows before he was loaned out to Borussia Dortmund, then sold to Inter Milan before finding his feet at PSG. He’s just 24 but has had a taste of four of Europe’s top five leagues. He once confessed to French daily L’Equipe: “I did not like that, going from one club to another, but the exposure to different football leagues and cultures made me a better footballer, and of course made me friends with a lot of them.”
Part of Hakimi’s problem was inconsency, he would be divine one moment and silly the next. It frustrated his Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte: “Immensely talented, but he needs to get tougher and more consent.” The Italian manager also considered him the worst penalty-taker he had ever seen. “What’s important is he doesn’t take penalties,” Conte once quipped.
“If we ever get to penalties, everyone would have to die before letting him take one. He’s rubbish at them, worse than me when I played.”
And at the World Cup, he stroked the most glorious penalty of the tournament.
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The second-most popular Moroccan footballer could be Bono, the goalkeeper, who officially goes the name Yassine Bounou (but no one calls him Yassine, which he admittedly does not prefer either). He is the typical ever-smiling, goofy goalkeeper, who is exceptionally successful in blocking penalties. In four games, he has saved seven goal-bound shots, conceded just once, off a wicked deflection of his own man, and maintained a clean sheet in the tie-breaker against Spain.

It is no coincidence that he was the thriftiest goalkeeper across the top-five leagues in Europe last season, keeping a clean sheet more than once every two games, that is 32 in 59 matches. The year before, he was Sevilla’s shootout hero in the Europa league final against Manchester United. Well, he even scored a vital goal for his club against Real Valladolid.
But what makes him even more loveable is his character. Regragui describes him as the guy who lightens the mood in the dressing room. “He is a positive presence in the change room, the guy who kills the tensions in the room. He always sees the brighter side of things, always has an input or two in every topic you discuss. He is not worried about anything in life,” says Regragui.
His is an unconventional immigrant story. He was born in Montreal where his father was working as a physics teacher but when he was three, he shifted to Casablanca. His parents wanted him to be a scient, never wanted to see him anywhere near a football ground, and his entire childhood was spent playing the game on the streets, away from the gaze of his parents. Finally, his parents relented and enrolled him at the Wydad Casablanca club.
But his career was a slow-burner. From Wydad, he went to the Atletico Madrid B team, never got an opportunity with the senior team – though he says he learned immensely just watching Jan Oblak – was then loaned out to Real Zaragoza, before finally getting a decent hit at Girona, for whom he turned up 83 times. In 2020, Sevilla came calling, and he got his first big breakthrough. The start was difficult, but the shootout win was to change his life and career.
He is the team’s pacifier too. Whenever he sees one of his teammates about to lose his cool and fuse up, he will rush towards and defuse them.
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In no particular order, there would be takers for the first names of Hakim Ziyech, Morocco’s attacking thrust; Youssef En-Nesyri, the forward who scored the match-winning header against Portugal; Sofyan Amrabat, the immovable defensive screen, the first wall to crack before you reach the fort; or Nayef Aguerd, the great wall of Morocco. The manager’s name too would not be far behind.
Regragui has produced tactical statements, fashion statements (black jeans and blazer, white shirts and sneakers, thick beard and shaved hair), and evocative statements on “Africa’s football ambitions”, “the prejudice to African coaches” and “Arab unity.”
His take on fewer African coaches in big leagues was scathing. “Today, I think it’s impossible that Manchester City or Barcelona will hire an Arab coach, they don’t even think about it, as if we’re not worthy, or ignorant or incapable of such a task. However, there’s moments in hory that make people change their mind, but it’s on us as African and Arab people to change hory. At a certain point, this could happen.”
But even Regragui did not dream of making a name. He was with his family enjoying a break when he heard the news of the sacking of his predecessor, Vahid Halilhodzic. Morocco had already qualified for the World Cup but the Bosnian-French manager’s relationships with many team members were strained. They were a disunited group, and the World Cup was a disaster waiting to unfold.

Regragui was not the most consensual choice, though he was a former footballer. But the football association stuck with their decision, though there were rumours that he would be a stopgap of sorts, and after the disaster that would be the World Cup, they would appoint a more high-profile coach.
The new appointee went about his task of forging unity in the team straightaway. He wiped away the insecurity of Moroccan players settled in other parts of the world, a topic of ceaseless debate in the country. “I told the association that a Moroccan is a Moroccan, it doesn’t matter where he is born or raised. I assured the players to not worry, the best Moroccan players would represent Morocco.”
Soon after he took over, Regragui buzzed Ziyech, who Halilhodzic had frozen out for 15 months. Ziyech had announced his retirement too. But Regragui sweet-talked his way to winning Ziyech’s trust. The right-winger has been one of Morocco’s leading lights this World Cup. Like most of the players, he was born and bred in a Parisian suburb and played in Europe for much of his career. So he could relate to the insecurities of Morocco’s expat contingent.
In a little under three months, Regragui forged one missing virtue that Morocco lacked. Unity. Said Amrabat: “He made us unite for a cause. Before that we were just a group of footballers playing in different parts of the world, but he gave us identity and vision. He brought us hope and belief.”
He backs his players, no matter the criticism. Defender Aguerd was thinking of leaving football when Regragui took over FUS Rabat. He not only dissuaded him from the extreme step but instilled confidence in him and worked closely with him. So was En-Nesyri, ruthlessly criticised for his profligacy. But Regragui would stand with him. “He sticks up for his players and that gives you the desire to battle for him,” said Aguerd.Subscriber Only StoriesPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
His critics call him “avocado head”, an implication to his sparkling shaved head. Sometime during the World Cup, he posed for a photo holding an avocado with a soccer ball inside it and pointing his finger at his head. Last heard, that avocado could be Morocco’s national fruit.