Monaco Starlet Ben Seghir Rejects France’s Olympic Team Offer, Stays with Morocco

Eliesse Ben Seghir is not about to change his sports nationality. While Thierry Henry, coach of the Espoirs and the French Olympic team, personally contacted the young talent to convince him to give up representing Morocco and play with the Bleuets, reveals the site Kooora, adding that the coach of the Bleuets "promised" the 19-year-old player "a starting place in the French team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games". But the Atlas Lion declined Henry’s offer. A setback then for France.

The native of Saint-Tropez, who already has several selections in the French U17, U18 and U19 teams, has finally chosen to play for his country of origin, Morocco. Summoned by Walid Regragui, he played the two friendly matches of the Atlas Lions’ international break against Angola (1-0) on March 22 and Mauritania on March 26 (0-0) at the Grand Stade d’Agadir and delivered a good performance praised by the coach of the Moroccan national team.

After these two matches, Morocco will face Zambia and Congo in June as part of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. If the AS Monaco jewel plays one of these two matches, France will lose him definitively.