Morocco Coach Halilhodzic Stands Firm on Excluding Ziyech and Mazraoui for World Cup

"The player who refuses to train, who refuses to play, who fakes injuries, for me it’s a finished story." This is how Vahid Halilhodzic responded to the Croatian television channel Nova TV, which wanted to know if the Franco-Bosnian coach would be willing to call up the Moroccan internationals Hakim Ziyech and Noussair Mazraoui for the World Cup taking place from November 21 to December 18, 2022. The coach of the Moroccan national team thus maintains his decision not to call up the two players with whom he no longer has good relations, while the defender of Ajax Amsterdam seems tempted by a return to the national team.

In a message posted on social media, Noussair Mazraoui returned to his decision not to play for Morocco anymore and sent a coded message to the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) about his desire to return to the national team. "I have decided not to play for the national team in the next matches." [...] Unfortunately, the coach did not have time for a meeting and discussions" on the current rift, the Ajax star had written on his Instagram account in March.