The World Cup often is much more than sport — it touches politics, identity and culture.
Morocco’s historic run to the semifinals, and Achraf Hakimi’s winning Panenka penalty against Spain — the country of his birth — is a potent example of that.
Fourteen of the 26-man squad in Qatar were born overseas ranging from countries in Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium. But the decision to play for someone’s country of origin, or the one you now call home is fraught.
It’s a decision some Moroccan internationals have received heavy criticism over. Dutch football legend Marco van Basten labelled Hakim Ziyech “stupid” for choosing to play for Morocco over the Netherlands.
Many were surprised that Achraf Hakimi, one of the best fullbacks in the world, chose Morocco over Spain. When Hakimi trained for the Spain youth teams, he said in an interview it was “not what he had at home”. Something was missing.
“I saw that it was not the right place for me, I did not feel at home,” Hakimi told Marca.
“It was not for anything in particular, but for what I felt, because it was not what I had at home, which is the Arab culture, being Moroccan. I wanted to be here.”
Feeling like an immigrant when winning stops
The previous two World Cup winners have had their success attributed to the multicultural make-up of their teams, which represented the rich diversity and new faces of French and German society.
But that diversity has been inconvenient when the winning stopped. Most famously, the 1998 French winning team was dubbed in France as ‘Black, Blanc, Beur’ to describe the representation of Black, Arab and white France.
Suddenly, after consecutive failed international tournaments, that diversity was criticised as creating tensions and disharmony within the squad.
In 2011, former French national team coach Laurent Blanc allegedly suggested quotas for players from particular backgrounds citing that there were “too many Black and Arab” players in the French system, and not enough white players “with our culture, our history”.
Footballers like Germany’s Mesut Ozil, France’s Karim Benzema and Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku have described a conditional relationship to their citizenry when they play for their respective national teams.
They have all said something to the effect of: “I’m German, French or Belgian when we win, an immigrant when we lose.”
It’s an experience that was heightened after last year’s European Championships where three young Black English footballers — Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka — all missed a penalty in the final shoot-out and received torrents of racist abuse.
Morocco’s diaspora scouting network
National teams across the African continent have begun tapping into their diaspora talent but none have been as successful as Morocco.
Morocco set up scouting systems in countries where their large diaspora communities live across central and southern Europe.
“What it means is that by the time that player is playing senior football, they’re aware of them,” Salim Masoud Said, an expert on African football, told the ABC.
Morocco stands in stark contrast to Ghana who attempted to convince Cody Gakpo, Eddie Nketiah and Callum Hudson-Odoi to opt to play for them months prior to the World Cup.
According to Mr Said, if football authorities know a Moroccan diaspora player is eligible, they will invite them for a training camp.
“I think Hakimi was invited to one of these camps about maybe just under a decade ago,” he said.
More than 20 dual-national players are typically invited along with the best young players based in Morocco.
It’s where the relationship with the national football association begins, with players being asked about their interest in playing for Morocco.
Morocco has followed that up with spending on infrastructure that rivals some of the best national excellence centres in the world.
“The King of Morocco has put 10 million Euro ($15.6 million) into football each year and created an academy superior to France’s Clairefontaine,” Ivory Coast’s football federation president Idriss Diallo told French newspaper L’Equipe after Morocco’s victory over Portugal.
“Apart from South Africa, no country has as much investment as Morocco. What has happened is no coincidence,” he added.
The fruits of that labour have begun to show with the likes of Youssef En-Nesyri, Nayef Aguerd and Azzedine Ounahi all products of the Mohammed VI academy.
Mr Said toured Morocco’s national technical facility in Rabat, describing it as not only the best national sports centre in Africa — but among the best in the world.
“If you visit as a player who potentially is thinking about representing Morocco, you’ll be very impressed and taken away by it,” he said.
“I think many [football] federations in Africa, especially the elite ones, do not have infrastructure like this in place.”
Morocco are very much a benchmark in African football, and that can be seen in their success so far this year.
Aside from this men’s World Cup, Morocco has successfully qualified for next year’s women’s World Cup, and a club side both in the women’s and men’s game have won the African champions league.
Morocco’s diaspora celebrating their success
The celebrations of Morocco’s win have been reverberating not just in Rabat or Casablanca but across the diaspora.
In Melbourne, Djamal Abdelkhelech celebrated in the early hours of the morning after watching his country make history. His story is similar to so many players in the squad, born in France, moving back to Morocco as an infant, and now living in Australia.
He believes whether you’re born as a Moroccan in diaspora or in Morocco — your home is your home.
“We are in Australia, for example, we’re not even players but the home is still the home, wherever you come from,” Mr Abdelkhelech told the ABC.
“So they love their country. They love their King, your community, the culture so that we’ll never forget, even if they are born and grew up in Europe.”
What will be the impact of this World Cup?
Whatever happens in the final weeks of the World Cup, Morocco’s run will have a lasting impact on how African nations organise their infrastructure and scout diaspora talent.
Mr Said described the scouting of diaspora players as international football’s answer to club football’s transfer window.
“I think this is what makes Morocco’s success really interesting, because now they’ve reached the semi-final, does the next big Moroccan footballer in France, Spain … will they actually select to play for Morocco?” he asked.
Perhaps they will, and maybe in contrast to Ziyech’s case, it won’t be called “stupid” for much longer.
Discussion about this post