Former Morocco Star Calls for More Diverse Coaching in Dutch Football

"With more diversity, we can save talents. In the Netherlands too, we have to face more and more different nationalities. We need people with diverse backgrounds to guide them well," Adil Ramzi points out in an interview with trouw.nl. "In French football, they finally understood that. They are now almost always finalists in the World Cup. If we want to exploit all the potential in the Netherlands and not waste any talent, we still have to change some things."

While he salutes the great careers of some Dutch players of Moroccan origin like Hakim Ziyech, Sofyan Amrabat, Noussair Mazraoui and Zakaria Aboukhlal who reached the semi-finals of the last World Cup with the Moroccan team, he believes that this remains a too meager representation of all the Moroccan talent present in the Netherlands. According to him, there are young Moroccan talents who do not shine because there is something wrong. "These young people live between two cultures. The world of high-level sports with all its rules is very different from that of home education. The Dutch are also tougher and more direct with each other at home. We Moroccans are not used to that," explains Ramzi.

And he continues: "So when a young Moroccan talent encounters difficulties, and it always happens, he often has more trouble dealing with it. He is not resilient enough. So what happens? He gets angry. He expects to be supported by the club, but he is not. At home, he is, he is pampered, he is the best. This contrast is great. The young people who have succeeded have adapted in time. Hakim Ziyech is an example of this."