Morocco team, the impregnable tower of Babel by Walid Rekragui

Walid Regragui does not have the stature of Leonidas, at least the one played by Gerard Butler in the movie. 300 (2007). But we will see the Morocco coach adapt his own sauce. The Greek king’s iconic response: “We are Spartans! » Atlas lions do not come from the Peloponnese. Moreover, not directly from the Sharifian kingdom for many of them. But the French-Moroccan coach repeats this: “Every Moroccan is Moroccan!”

Everyone will feel right at home on Wednesday, December 14th, when it’s time to take on France for a place in the World Cup Final (8pm CEST). A little bit because Al Bayt Stadium, which is planted in the desert north of Qatar, has a Bedouin tent. And a lot because the country enclosure will be filled with a noisy and colorful crowd raving about their cause.

Parachuting in to replace Wahid Halilodzic – he landed three months before the World Cup finals for not being able to get along with many stars, and was kicked out of the team – Walid Rakraki brought him back into the fold several times. The Atlas Lions were criticized for not participating in the selection. He has instilled in his troops a compulsive and collective state of mind, like Hakim Ziyech, the Chelsea winger who is back in the national jersey and who stepped up on Saturday to help his team defeat Portugal – and become the first African nation to reach the quarter-finals. -finals.

I make a milkshake with all of this.

Since his appointment on August 31, Walid Rekragui has worked to rebuild Morocco’s Tower of Babel. Originally from the Montconseal region, in Corbeil-Essonne (Essonne), the former footballer is close to his players, with whom he can express himself in French, Arabic, Spanish and English. No point in running a “Spanish hostel” this is a choice. Of the 26 players selected for the World Cup, only 12 were born in Morocco – the lowest total of the 32 competing teams, according to a tally by FIFA. The others, all from the diaspora, were born in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and France.

And not all of them speak the same language, attest to this the video Sofiane Boufal, who grew up and trained in Angers, is shown an interview on the sidelines of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. After a long question in Arabic, the embarrassed midfielder asks the journalist: “In French, please.” “In Morocco, I wrote a sports document like a charter and a summary describing the team’s defensive and offensive identity (…), it’s all there, all the mechanisms. It has been translated into five languages, because there are Moroccans everywhere.”Vahid Halilhodzic summed up before the competition, V.I interview in SoFoot.

In Morocco, youth training is progressing, especially since the establishment of the Mohammed VI Academy in early 2010, from which striker Youssef Al-Nusairi, midfielder Ezzedine Unahi, and defender Nayef Ajord, who were distinguished by Qatari football, started. world Cup. However, like Tunisia, the place for local players has shrunk over the years, and Walid Regragui has been blamed as much as his predecessor.

But the current coach rejects the criticism and describes him as unified. “Whether he comes from France, Belgium, Morocco or anywhere else, from the moment a man wants to die, to fight for the Moroccan jerseyAnd the Former linebacker claims. I was born in France but there is no more Moroccan heart than mine. When you come to the national team, you have to give 100%. I have players born in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands and I make milkshakes with it all. »

Worlds of Rocky Balboa

and cocktail clashes. In Qatar, the Moroccan national team represents a united front, a team that advances strongly in its certainty, such as midfielder Sofiane Amrabat, one of the highlights of the competition and accelerator in Morocco.

After their colleagues from Belgium, then from Spain, it was the turn of the Atlas Lions from France to face, Wednesday, the country of their birth, where they were trained. If Captain Romain Sayess, baby from dromStill uncertain after going off injured against Portugal, Sofiane Boufal will be present and determined to extend his Qatari dream after a difficult start to the season with Angers in Ligue 1. It did not go unnoticed by the recruits.

Growing up in the suburbs of Madrid, Achraf Hakimi will meet his partner at Paris Saint-Germain and great friend Kylian Mbappe. At the beginning of the year, the two are inseparable Been scheduled At the World Cup, on the sidelines of a training period in Doha.

Before facing the Belgians, in the second match of the World Cup, Walid Regragui announced “Wanting to change African mindsets a bit” in soccer. The continent has seen the teams it represents “For putting on great matches in the World Cup but being eliminated in the first match”. Assuming a restricted game and “European state of mind”Coach warned: “If we pass through the chickens, we will be very dangerous.” Not a mistake: after Croatia – also semi-finalists – Belgium, Spain and Portugal faced the Moroccan defence.

during feedback on quarter-final victory over Portugal, With banter from the Île-de-France, Regragui elicited a joie de vivre “The team sympathetic to the World Cup”that the whole world knows, “Rocky Balboa in this World Cup, the one who comes out from the bottom”. But in the name of Africa and the Arab world, everyone who is supposed to be a “Aspiring Technician” He dedicates all his victories in this first edition of the World Cup organized in the Arab world.

Before the start of the competition, expect Samuel Eto’o, the former African football star “Morocco qualified for the final after victories against Spain [en huitièmes]Portugal [en quarts] and current champion, France [en demi-finales] ». At the moment, the path of the Atlas Lions gives rise to the predictions of the current president of the Cameroonian Football Federation. And if the Blues can reassure themselves by remembering that Eto’o saw, on the other side of the table, Cameroon advance to the final, Sofiane Boufal’s partners will want to take the omen.