Morocco and Belgium Vie for Allegiance of Ajax’s Young Star Rayane Bounida

Bounida, who shines within the youth teams of Ajax and the Belgian under-19 national team, is attracting covetousness. While Belgium seems to have a head start, Morocco is not giving up the fight and hopes to convince the young player to wear the colors of his origins.

However, the task seems daunting for the Royal Moroccan Football Federation. Media sources mention pressures exerted on Bounida by the Belgian side in order to dissuade him from changing his sports nationality.

Rayane Bounida’s talent has been recognized since a very young age. At the age of 11, his exceptional performances, broadcast on YouTube, caught the eye of Nike, who offered him a sponsorship contract. Passionate about football, the young Bounida does not hesitate to make the trip to the Netherlands to present a ball to his idol, Abdelhak Nouri. A gesture that seduces Ajax Amsterdam, which decides to recruit him in 2021, with an estimated annual salary of 700,000 euros.