Morocco’s Bilal El Khannous Faces Belgium in World Cup Clash of Loyalties

After playing only two matches with the Belgian U18s, under the direction of Thierry Siquet, Bilal El Khannous decided to wear the Moroccan national colors. "Indeed, I had him twice... and I would have liked to have him longer. We talked several times with him to try to get him to stay with us... But in October 2021, during our last activity, he told us that he had decided in favor of Morocco. We respect his choice... but Morocco put a lot of pressure on him by promising him an immediate place in the U20 Team. For us, it was impossible...," confides the coach of the Diablotins U18 to Belga.

Considered the big surprise of the list of Moroccan players called up by Walid Regragui for the World Cup in Qatar, El Khannous is participating for the first time in this competition, without ever having played with the Moroccan national team. "I don’t know the role the Moroccan coach intends to assign him. Is he coming to play or to learn? [...] Footballistically, he masters everything (sic), but he must also now blend into a new environment," explains Thierry Siquet.

Trained at Anderlecht from 2009 to 2019, Bilal El Khannous "is a dominant player, in the sense that he is aware of his qualities but also because he orients the game through his choices. He knows what he’s doing... and he knows how to do everything, even when he’s under pressure: the ball is his friend (sic), which is not necessarily the case for quite a few other players... Technically, he is capable of chaining three small bridges (sic) if he wants to, but he won’t do it if it’s not necessary. He makes the right choices on the pitch and he has stripped his game of the frills that were not always useful. In D1, he also understood that he had to leave the arrogance in the locker room," analyzes Thierry Siquet.

"Bilal exudes great maturity on the pitch. His great strength with us was his ability to find the right spaces and areas, to get out of the opposing marking to initiate his actions from further away. He doesn’t play for himself, he makes the others play: a lot of balls go through him, but few are for him (sic). He’s a passer and a creator... He also has a build and a physical background that allow him to repeat the runs in loss of possession as in possession: he has the stamina, as they say!... He will gain experience with this World Cup...," concludes Siquet.