From AFCON to World Cup 2026: How Morocco became a football powerhouse

In a mates of decades, Morocco went from being regularly eliminated successful the radical stages of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and failing to suffice for respective successive World Cups to sitting wrong the apical 10 of the FIFA men’s rankings, reaching the semifinals astatine the Qatar World Cup successful 2022 and being considered credible contenders for the sport’s biggest tourney this summer.

Even much awesome is that the Atlas Lions’ occurrence is not constricted to the elder men’s nationalist squad but has been dispersed crossed each property radical and category.

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Morocco are presently the 2025 AFCON champions, albeit aft Senegal were stripped of the title. They were besides 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) finalists, 2025 FIFA Arab Cup champions, 2025 African Nations Championship (CHAN) champions, 2025 U-20 FIFA World Cup champions, 2025 U-17 AFCON champions, 2024 Olympic men’s bronze medallists and 2024 Futsal AFCON champions.

There is nary magic look down the success. A root adjacent to the Royal Moroccan Football Federation who spoke connected information of anonymity due to the fact that helium was not authorised to talk with the media explained that the country’s occurrence rests connected 3 pillars: bully governance, fiscal concern and competent quality resources.

“King Mohammed VI laid retired this strategy during the Skhirat Sports Conference successful 2008, which marked the opening of a semipermanent nationalist task for shot development,” helium said.

“The archetypal pillar was governance reform, including the instauration of a nationalist section for fiscal control, which helped cleanable up and professionalise the fiscal operation of Moroccan football.

“This was followed by monolithic concern successful infrastructure astatine each level of the game. For instance, done practice with the Royal Moroccan Football Federation and the Moroccan government, we built thousands of section shot pitches called ‘proximity fields’. These are unfastened and accessible to everyone, serving wide information crossed the country.”

In summation to that nationalist infrastructure, Morocco built the Mohammed VI analyzable and academy successful Maamoura, conscionable extracurricular Rabat. Replete with perfectly manicured pitches, the latest carnal therapy instrumentality and an on-site hotel, the analyzable has been compared to the finest method centres successful satellite football, including France’s Clairefontaine.

The academy has produced apical talent, including respective starters for the elder men’s squad – among them Olympique de Marseille’s Nayef Aguerd, Girona’s Azzedine Ounahi and Al-Ittihad’s Youssef En-Nesyri.

Another large puzzle portion successful the gathering of the North African powerhouse came erstwhile the African federations lobbied FIFA to betterment nationalist eligibility rules, which opened the doorway to players from their European-born diaspora. Thanks to those regularisation changes, Morocco secured the services of players similar Hakim Ziyech, Nordin Amrabat and Brahim Diaz.

The latest summation to the Atlas Lions is Ayyoub Bouaddi. The 18-year-old Lille midfielder is 1 of the finest young players successful France, and French media reported that adjacent Zinedine Zidane – wide expected to instrumentality complaint of the French nationalist squad aft Didier Deschamps steps down aft the World Cup – contacted Bouaddi’s entourage to enquire astir retaining him for Les Bleus.

Yet, Bouaddi was steadfast successful his plans to correspond Morocco.

“I don’t deliberation we’ve ever had a subordinate that young and with that overmuch committedness state for Morocco,” Tom Yousef Drissi, a passionate protagonist of the Atlas Lions, told Al Jazeera.

“It feels different, … much seismic, much unprecedented. We’ve had bully European-born young players articulation the squad before, but France are the pre-eminent unit successful satellite shot close now, and their midfield is ageing.

“[Bouaddi] astir apt had a wide pathway into that team. He captained their U-21s arsenic precocious arsenic 2 months ago. I deliberation with Samir El Mourabet, Neil El Aynaoui and Bilal El Khannous, it sets america up precise nicely for the decennary ahead.”

AFCON fallout

With the trajectory of Moroccan shot pointing firmly upwards, it seems the lone happening that could derail Morocco astatine the World Cup is the instability triggered by the 2025 AFCON final. In second-half stoppage clip with the lucifer headed to other clip astatine 0-0, referee Jean-Jacques Ndala awarded a dubious punishment successful favour of Morocco.

What followed shook the full footballing world. The Senegalese squad walked disconnected the transportation and into their dressing country portion successful the stands down the Moroccan goal, Senegal fans clashed with stewards.

Inexplicably, the lucifer was not called off. After a hold of astir 15 minutes, the Senegalese squad returned to the pitch, and Brahim Diaz stepped up to instrumentality the punishment and attempted a panenka. Edouard Mendy did not budge disconnected his enactment and calmly collected the shot, and Senegal went connected to triumph successful other time.

At the post-match quality league successful Rabat, the archetypal question enactment to manager Walid Regragui – who had taken Morocco to the 2022 World Cup semifinal – was: “Will you resign contiguous oregon time morning?”

Regragui brushed it speech but resigned a fewer weeks later. Throughout the tournament, it had been communal cognition that if Morocco did not assistance the trophy, Regragui would apt beryllium replaced by either Tarik Sektioui oregon Mohamed Ouahbi. The Royal Moroccan Football Federation opted for the second aft helium led the Moroccan younker squad to winning the U-20 FIFA World Cup successful October with an attack-minded approach.

“There’s an absorbing parallel with Walid Regragui backmost successful 2022. … He besides took implicit the nationalist squad 2 oregon 3 months earlier the World Cup,” Said Abadi, a Moroccan writer and writer of The History of African Football, told Al Jazeera.

“Ouahbi’s archetypal matches were friendlies successful March, and they showed that helium had already begun implementing his ideas and playing style. But you tin consciousness that galore things aren’t wholly settled yet. Ouahbi volition inactive beryllium looking for the close equilibrium betwixt the experienced players from the Regragui epoch and the caller generation. A large overhaul isn’t imaginable successful this timeframe.”

While galore radical deliberation highly of Ouahbi, a valid question hangs implicit whether Regragui’s pragmatic benignant mightiness person been amended suited to the demands of a World Cup.

In Qatar, Morocco were undefeated successful each lucifer successful which they had little than 50 percent possession, and the lone crippled they mislaid was against France erstwhile they had the lion’s stock of the ball. Whether Ouahbi’s much adventurous attack tin present the aforesaid resilience successful the knockout rounds remains to beryllium seen.

The satellite whitethorn beryllium justified successful maintaining precocious expectations for Morocco astatine the 2026 World Cup, but those who travel this squad astir intimately recognize that the tourney is conscionable different milestone connected a longer roadworthy that leads successful 4 years to a World Cup played connected location soil.

“Even the 2030 World Cup is not an extremity goal,” the Moroccan federation root said.

“It is simply a milestone that volition assistance accelerate the country’s broader improvement crossed each its cardinal dimensions: infrastructure, quality capital, transportation, mobility and planetary attractiveness.”