As Walid Regragui ran onto the pitch, to the celebrating Morocco national team, in a stadium full of celebrating, drumming and screaming Moroccan fans, he slapped his bald head with the palms of his hands. It looked like he needed a little extra help to understand what had just happened. But he got support.
At first it was the players who threw it in unison towards the evening sky over al-Rayyan. Then it was Morocco’s King Mohammed VI who called the manager to express his pride in the team, Regragui reported in the press conference. Finally, it was a Moroccan journalist who, instead of asking a question, congratulated him and said with tears in his eyes: “I just want to say thank you.”
Finally, Regragui was also asked about the 3-0 penalty shoot-out against Spain that made Morocco the fourth African team in football history to reach a World Cup quarterfinals. The coach said, among other things: “Morocco has the backing of many people to create history.”
The fact that the Moroccan team could become one of the most important for the first World Cup in an Arabic-speaking country was already indicated in the first few weeks of the tournament. About 15,000 Moroccans live in Qatar, and many thousands more have come. Ever since the Moroccans made it through the group stage after beating Canada and Belgium as the only Arab team, the number of their fans has grown even larger. Because Tunisians, for example, were now part of it.
The Moroccan fans turned the game in the Education City Stadium into a home game the likes of which this World Cup had not seen before. With every Spanish ball contact, the piercing whistles vibrated in the ears. Victory, coach Regragui said, would have been impossible without them.
Morocco shapes the World Cup not only in sporting terms, but also politically
It’s not just sporting stories that make Morocco the team that the whole Arab world is now supporting. For example, the association invited the players’ families to Doha, and Achraf Hakimi hugged his mother in the stands after they had reached the round of 16. Coach Regragui’s mother is also there. For the first time in her life, she traveled for her son’s soccer games, she told Moroccan television station Arriyadia.
Regragui in general: The 47-year-old coach, who has only been Morocco’s national coach for a few months because his predecessor Vahid Halihodzic fell out with the most important player Hakim Ziyech, is already being celebrated at home as the founder of a new football era. He is now the first African coach in World Cup history to reach a quarter-finals. It’s about competence, not about origin, he said.
How much the Moroccans shape this World Cup can also be seen from the symbols. For a long time it was the rainbow flag that was talked about in Qatar. From a European point of view, protesting the situation in the emirate was the dominant theme of the tournament. After the win against Spain, the Moroccans celebrated with the flag of Palestine, carrying it on the lap of honor and holding it up for team photos. The flag has been present in many stadiums in Qatar for weeks, as an armband or flag in the audience, and the Moroccans have also worn it. In contrast to the famous “One Love” bandage, no objections have been made by the world association Fifa. And even if no one says so, the message from the Arab world is clear: political protest, we can do that as well. Then with our concerns.
In keeping with this tournament, where so much is political, the game against Spain was not only against a higher-class footballer, but against Morocco’s former colonial power. The protagonists of the evening in particular have a special relationship with Spain: goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who didn’t allow a Spanish penalty goal and brilliantly parried attempts by Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets, has spent his professional career almost exclusively in Spain. He is currently under contract with FC Sevilla. Bono, that’s what he’s called, he was of course the man of the evening.
And Hakimi, the Paris Saint-Germain full-back who has been featured on numerous promotional posters in Doha, arguably because his employer is Qatari-owned, was born in Madrid. He chipped the decisive penalty with an outrageous nonchalance in the middle, then he danced like a penguin.
Waddling into the quarterfinals: full-back Achraf Hakimi.
(Photo: Ricardo Mazalan/AP)
The 120 minutes before that were a defensive battle, Spain had 77 percent possession of the ball, 926 of 1019 passes were successful, but the Moroccans hardly allowed any dangerous scoring chances. Sofyan Amrabat, a 26-year-old defensive midfielder of compact build who is under contract at Fiorentina, had the game of his life. Morocco defended with two chains of four, in between Amrabat closed the center of the Spaniards in front of the defence, getting one of his legs in almost every pass and every dribble that came close to him.
As soon as things went forward, Sofiane Boufal, a 29-year-old graceful left winger from French Premier League side SCO Angers, who hooked quickly, introduced himself to the world public. And a former German U21 national player also took a prominent place: Abdelhamid Sabiri, 26, formerly with 1. FC Nürnberg and SC Paderborn, now with Sampdoria Genoa, converted the first penalty. “I asked if anyone wanted to shoot first. Nobody answered – then I said I’ll go ahead,” he later reported.
Morocco could become the best African World Cup team in history
Amrabat, Boufal and Sabiri, who grew up in the Netherlands, France and Germany respectively, represent what is special about the Moroccan team: their diversity. 17 players were born in a country other than Morocco, more than any other team at the World Cup.
Coach Regragui, himself born and raised in France, initially had to listen to isolated accusations in Morocco that the team was not Moroccan enough. On Tuesday, he said: “Every country has its football culture, you make a milkshake out of it and go to the quarter-finals. I’m very happy with that.” Sabiri, who was born in Morocco but grew up in Germany and has only been a national player since this year, said: “We are Moroccan at heart, we all have that in common. Nobody stands in each other’s way, everyone speaks at least three languages, everyone can communicate with anyone.”
And yet there was more to him than that. “For all of Africa, for the Arab countries, for all Muslims in the world” they played. “We wanted to make them happy,” said Sabiri. He knew from his own experience what it felt like. In 2010, as a 13-year-old, he was for Ghana: “As if it were my country because it is an African country.”
Ghana lost to Uruguay on penalties in the quarter-finals. Morocco now have a chance against Portugal to become the best African team in World Cup history. One thing is certain: it will be a home game again.