Medhi Benatia Reveals Family Ties Influenced Choice to Play for Morocco Over Algeria

"I had made a few selections with the youth teams of France. Then I had serious injuries. I went to Clermont, in Ligue 2, to relaunch myself, and there, Morocco called me [...] It’s a country (Morocco) that I knew well because I went there every year since I was little. Unfortunately, it was not at all the case with Algeria. I talked about it with my parents: my mother, Algerian, was not happy, but my father, Moroccan, was delighted. So the choice was obvious," said the former defender of Roma, Bayern Munich and Juventus in an interview with YouTuber Sam FOOTX.

Mehdi Benatia played for the Moroccan national team until his international retirement. The only regret he might have is that he could not win the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN), which he could have done with the Fennecs in 2019.